Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Born into a family of artists, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was associated with the impressionist movement in his early career, and towards the end of his career developed a more technical style. He enrolled in drawing and anatomy classes at Ecole des beaux art in 1862. He also took painting lessons with Swiss painter Charles Gleyre. Renoir originally learned neo-classical style painting, he was influenced by Delacroix and Corote. Renoir did not particularly like the environment in art classes but continued to go.

Renoirs’ artworks are known for their vibrant light and saturated color. His work was mostly candid portraits of women and children, as well as female nudes, even though a  critique and Le Figaro newspaper said that his figures looked like corpses.  

Throughout these classes, I find it really interesting that I am familiar with many of the works shown in class but have never given them a second thought. I chose to write my blog post about Renoir because the placemats in my house are his most famous painting Dance at le Moulin de la Galette. 

I like some of Renoir’s art more than others, for example, I really like a Portrait of Irene Cahen D’anverse, because it reminds me of Carriera, it is reminiscent of the pastel luminescence and also Rubens because of the creamy skin. However, while I like the scene of girls at the piano I don’t particularly love the colors used in comparison to his other paintings. My favorite paintings Renoir created are the ones inspired by the bold colors of Delacroix.