2. Artists & stock
3. Pierre-Auguste Renoir
4. Biography

Notes of biography

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges in 1841; his family, of modest means, moved to Paris in 1844. He was barely 13 years old when he began working as an apprentice (making porcelain, painted fabrics, etc.). Attracted to painting, Renoir took a drawing course in a municipal workshop. In 1859, he decorated a number of Parisian cafés with mythological scenery. From 1860 until 1864, he received permission to copy works of art in the Louvre, where he admired the work of Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard. Renoir attended the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, where he met Fantin-Latour and formed friendships with Bazille, Sisley and Monet, with whom he painted outdoors in the surroundings of Paris; they all lived together in 1867.
Shortly after 1870, Monet introduced them to Manet, who would have a seminal influence on this group of future impressionists. The artist was already strongly attracted by feminine beauty.
Mobilised for the war of 1870, Renoir fell ill. Returning to painting, Renoir, until 1880, shared fully in the enthusiasm for the impressionist adventure. He often painted alongside Monet (at Chatou, Bougival, Argenteuil, etc.), each painter trying to capture the incessant movement of appearances. Renoir participated in group exhibitions (Salon de Paris, Salon de Refusés, Salon des Artistes français, Salon d’Automne, etc.). The works of Renoir are happy, distinguished by his preference for placing his characters in a context that was more concerned with Impressionism than landscape.
In 1873, Durand-Ruel began to buy his canvases; this money significantly improved the vicissitudes of the artist’s bohemian lifestyle. He rented a dilapidated space in Monparnasse in 1876. He painted, choosing his subjects among the popular scenes of Paris. At the beginning of the 1880’s, Renoir moved into new circles; he distanced himself from his friends from his difficult years, and began to doubt Impressionism. Henceforth, his work was shown regularly in solo exhibitions. At the age of 40, he became involved with Aline Charigot, his model, whom he married in 1890. Their life was happy, and they had three sons (Pierre, who would become an actor; Jean, the well-known cinema director; and Claude, known as “Coco”, a ceramist and decorator).
As of 1881, in order to clarify his aesthetic ideas, Renoir travelled to Algeria and Italy. He admitted to himself, in 1883, that he had arrived at the end of Impressionism. His so-called “Ingres period” began. Renoir developed a friendship with Mallarmé, joined Cezanne in Estaque many times, working by side-by-side, and travelled. If he gradually returned to the principles of Impressionism, it was, from this point forward, in a very personal way.
In 1894, he was named the executor of Caillebotte, who bequeathed a very large collection of Impressionist works to the State. Renoir travelled again, to Germany, then made his first trip to Cagnes-sur-Mer (1898). His deteriorating health (gout, rheumatism) slowly began to affect his eyesight. He decided to settle in Cagnes, seeking the dry, hot climate of the south of France. In 1907, he abandoned Paris and purchased the Domaine des Collettes, where he built a house. He tried sculpture, after Maillol.
In 1911, suffering from a crisis of paralysis, he finally gave up walking, able to move from now on only in a wheelchair. Unable to hold his brushes, Renoir had them bound to his wrists.
In 1913, Renoir was included in the Armory Show exhibition in New York. In 1919, he was officially invited to visit the Impressionists hall in the Louvre. A sensual lover of life, Renoir, throughout history, will remain the painter of radiant, full-blown womanhood, the tender portraitist of children, and one of the great masters of colour.
Suffering from pulmonary congestion, Pierre-Auguste Renoir died in Cagnes-sur-Mer on 3 December 1919.

“For me a picture should be a pleasant thing, joyful and pretty – yes, pretty! There are enough annoying things in life so that we do not have to create even more of them.” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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