Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A French Impressionist painter who painted 'Pretty' art. Renoir and Monet painted Impressionist landscapes using bright complimentary colors. He is best known for painting Happy children, flowers, Beautiful landscapes and Pretty women. This is in contrast to a lot of artists who depicted the darker side of life. The prettiness of his paintings made them accessible to regular people who aren't down with the Art scene. They are some of the most well known and popular paintings in the art world. Le Moulin de la Galette is also one of the most expensive paintings selling for about $78 million in 1990. Bathers, The Umbrellas, The Skiff, and Luncheon of the Boating Party are all typical representations of his style and may show why he is so popular. http://www.abcgallery.com/R/renoir/renoir.html has some good reproductions of his work for those interested in seeing it. Sadly, later in life, Renoir suffered from rheumatoid Arthritis which seriously hampered his painting. Legend has it t... Read more

pretty!! who doesn't like a Renoir?

just ok... decent.

A master of application, a fine colorist with a very advanced sense of surface, but essentially too decorative and not challenging enough to the viewer to rate with the greats. Renoir is a curious one, however, in that his approach combines the new and contemporary in a technical sense with a traditional and somewhat backward-looking sensibility in terms of subject matter, mood, and presentation of the image. He did some very lovely paintings, but he didn't influence anyone. He was sorta related to the Impressionist movement (more of a post-Impressionist), but not really in the same league with some of his contemporaries.

If a Renior painting can't brighten your mood up a little, probably nothing will. What attracts me to him most is his vibrant use of color and happy scenes. His Luncheon of the Boating Party is a good example. Even the glasses on the table seem to gleam with light. Renoir also used his own friends and family in his paintings. His wife Aline Charigot appears in several of his paintings. Like other impressionists he was adept with light, his painting The Swing being a good example and he had an uncanny knack for painting children's portraits- his Portrait of Madamoiselle Romaine Lacaux being my personal favorite with the delicate red flowers beset so nicely with the young girl's grey dress. Lucklily I live near Chicago where the Art Museum houses an impressive collection of Renoir and other Impressionists. Worth the trip every time.

I love Renoir. His art reveals his love of people. A guidebook to the Musee d'Orsay said that he was "searching for an ideal beauty," but to me he wasn't so other-worldly. His subjects are flesh and blood.

He may be the artist most confused with Monet but Renoir has wonderful characteristics of his own. His use of colors like coral and robin's egg blue is amazing. These colors are so vibrant and as a rule should only be used to accentuate a painting according to many art teachers of old, but Renoir uses these as principle colors and his works always feel so incredibly warm to the eye. His lively brushstrokes are applied lovingly and methodically. His subjects rarely ever exude anything less than contentment. This is an artist who helped to define the Impressionist movement alongside men like Degas and Monet; and although it would seem the easiest thing to lump them all together, Renoir, to me, stands out above all the rest!