Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841 to Marguerite Merlet and LÐ"©onard Renoir. In 1844 his family moved to Paris and by 1854, at the young age of thirteen, began painting flowers on porcelain cups and saucers. Through his parents, he began as a painter for the porcelain industry; his parents felt this was the perfect start for the beginnings of an artist. He came from the town of Limoges, where porcelain became almost a symbol of status and wealth. By 1860 he had left the porcelain factory in favor of becoming a full time painter; he was granted permission to copy paintings in the Lourve where he began to admire the eighteenth century masters. In 1862 he entered the studio of Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyre, a Swiss teacher who offered instruction to many upcoming artists, where he met such influences as Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. Along with this, he began attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Through this he finally developed his unique brush stroke and style that was to be his own. From there, he became part of the Impressionist Era, which gave birth to a splendid era of painting which changed art forever. This new movement began in France which was what became the cultural center of Europe, and later the world.

France was an inviting place for an artist in the nineteenth century. A nation which clearly "offered the necessary conditions for an art form to flourish that was domestic scale, devoted to sensual pleasure and addressed to the private collector." This all came about during a time when France was establishing itself as one of the cultural centers of the world. This was a peaceful era, that saw a discernible increase in industrial productivity leading to greater middle-class prosperity and freedom. Through all this, increased activity in the art world began to develop. Through a boom in collecting and dealing art, artwork became a commodity that embodied the most positive and realizable value. These factors, together with many more, helped pave the way for the "impressionist" movement that we so fondly admire today.

The idiom "impressionism" was originally suggested by a critic reviewing Monet's Impression, Sunrise (1872), who blasted the painting "as a prime example of the slapdash appearance of the canvases on view at the first Impressionist exhibition." This radical movement, born in Paris and parts of northern France, began what was the rejection of the intellectual ambition towards idealism and perfection; it replaced it instead with a dedication to an art of the everyday and to improvisatory methods perfected to capture momentary and fleeting observations. Impressionist art brought with it a characteristic and long-lasting originality and approachability that, until now, was never found in the art of earlier periods. The interests of these painters seem to be relevant to our own and function humbly by exciting our visual contentment. The term "impressionism" itself entails a great assemblage of extraordinary painters who have changed the artistic world, as we know it.

The term impressionism has often been mistaken as a definition for every impressionist painter. Generally, terms of artistic movements tend to attempt to "Ð'...encompass the complexities and shifts of the diverse artists who exhibited under its banner." Many of the artists within the group opposed the term and instead preferred the name "Independents", while few even considered themselves members of other movements (Edgar Degas often considered himself a "Realist"). Despite this confliction, every impressionist painter shared a similar dedication to painting contemporary subjects in an informal style. In the face of this commitment impressionists still were divided into two principle camps. Led by Claude Monet and including Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and sometimes Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the "Pure" Impressionists painted out-of-doors, recording their impulsive reactions to light and atmosphere. The contesting division of Impressionists, led by Edgar Degas and included Gustave Caillebotte, Jean-Louis Forain and Jean FranÐ"§ois RaffaÐ"«lli, were more fascinated with urban subjects, draftsmanship and the human figure. By the Third Impressionist Art Exhibition, the group had suffered a tremendous rift in style. At this point, each artist had formed such diverse techniques, that by the 1880s even Monet and Renoir had abandoned the purely outdoor Impressionist style in favor of a more philosophical approach to painting; this also applies in different ways to the work of CÐ"©zanne, Gauguin and Pissarro.

Plate 1 - The Luncheon of the Boating Party

Approximately around the years 1880 - 1881, Renoir painted The Luncheon of the Boating Party, after a boating party that he had attended earlier that year. This painting is oil on canvas and is located in the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington DC. It was originally purchased from Renoir in 1923 by Durand-Ruel for his private collection, it was later sold by his children to Duncan Phillips.

In this painting, Renoir is celebrating youth. He had friends pose for him, as he did with many of his most famous paintings. This painting depicts an informal lunch amongst friends at the Fournaise Restaurant at Chatou (near Argenteuil). In this painting, his future wife, Aline Charigot at 21, can be seen in the foreground towards the left fondling a dog. Durand-Ruel bought the work and continued to exhibit it, first at his Renoir one-man show and then in Boston (1883), New York (1886), London (1905) and later in many different locations, until Washington collector Duncan Phillips finally persuaded him to part with it for an estimated $150,000 in 1923. American newspapers carried the headlines of this for weeks after the historic purchase.

At first glance, Renoir's The Luncheon of the Boating Party appears to be impulsive and fresh (as the Impressionist style generally appears). This painting depicts the momentary effects of light and color, as they would have appeared at this moment in time. Through the use of his own technique, he is able to bring together a rather large group of friends into a singular, authentic illustration of a captivated instant in time through its magnificent composition. Renoir's brushwork varies from vibrantly colored, profusely applied paint in the still life of the table, to the feathered brushstrokes of the countryside in the backdrop. The figures have comprehensive outlines and delicate nuances of light and dark to unmistakably characterize the human body and the explicit fine points of human facial features.

As compared to previous paintings by Renoir of the time, the color of this work is varied and distinguishes individual features, rather then engrossing