Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Love

Renoir’s joyful, discreet and tender vision, devoid of any hint of sentimentality, ribaldry or drama, distinguishes him from the other painters of his day.

The artist locates the interactions he depicts in his paintings in the public space, the new, modern social and natural settings - theaters, restaurants, guinguettes, boulevards and gardens - frequented by various social classes.

Theses popular "scenes" of modern love encouraged greater freedom of morals and the blossoming of "illicit" loves, in an era when bourgeois conventions and religious morality still governed romantic and sexual relationships.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Estaque, 1885-1890

"L'Estaque" is an oil on canvas, 18 3/8 x 21 7/8 inches, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), created in 1885-1890.

It is part of the collection of the Portland Museum of Art.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir passed through Provence on his return trip to France from Italy in January 1882, stopping at the fishing village of L'Estaque on the Mediterranean coast - close to Marseilles in the South of France, where Cézanne had painted regularly since the 1860s.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Estaque, 1885-1890 | Portland Museum of Art

Léon Perrault | Genre / Academic painter

Painter of genre, history, religion and portrait Léon-Jean-Bazile Perrault (1832-1908) stands in peril of not being remembered as distinctively as his successes might merit.

For our part, we may narrow this great artist’s claims at once by rejecting his religious painting, and we may be inclined to go on and deny him the title of historical painter, so that, although we shall have paintings of religious subjects and of historical subjects to consider, we shall in truth be considering them as work of a painter of genre and portrait.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | La Balançoire / L'altalena, 1876

Renoir gives us the impression of surprising a conversation - as if in a snapshot, he catches the glances turned towards the man seen from the back.

The young woman is looking away as if she were embarrassed.

The foursome in the foreground is balanced by the group of five figures sketchily brushed in the background.

The Swing has many points in common with The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette.

The two pictures were painted in parallel in the summer of 1876.

Paul Cézanne: "Voglio dipingere la verginità del mondo"!

• Il disegno ed il colore non sono affatto distinti. Man mano che si dipinge, si disegna. Più il colore diventa armonioso, più il disegno si fa preciso.

• Deriviamo tutti da Pissarro.

• Di Cézanne c'è n'è uno ogni due secoli!

• Ho una sensazione lieve, ma non riesco ad esprimerla. Sono come uno incapace di usare la moneta d'oro in suo possesso.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "La vita è un mazzo di fiori rossi"

"• "What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story".

• "La vita è un mazzo di fiori rossi".

Henri Lebasque | Pittore post-impressionista

Henri Lebasque (1865-1937) fu membro fondatore del Salon d'Automne nel 1903 con il suo amico Henri Matisse ed espose al Salon des Indépendants.

Nacque in una famiglia modesta (il padre era bottaio) e si iscrisse all'Académie Colarossi nel 1886.

In seguito collaborò con Ferdinand Humbert agli affreschi del Panthéon per sei anni, a partire dal 1888.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Stile artistico

Renoir è stato uno degli interpreti più convinti e spontanei del movimento Impressionista.

Artista prodigiosamente prolifico, con all'attivo ben cinquemila tele e un numero altrettanto cospicuo di disegni e acquerelli, Renoir si è distinto anche per la sua poliedricità, tanto che possiamo distinguere numerosi periodi nella sua produzione pittorica.

È lo stesso Renoir, in ogni caso, a parlare del suo metodo di fare arte:

"Dispongo il mio soggetto come voglio, poi mi metto a dipingerlo come farebbe un bambino.

Voglio che il rosso sia sonoro e squillante come una campana, quando non ci riesco aggiungo altri rossi ed altri colori finché non l'ottengo".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir remains the best known and most popular work of art at The Phillips Collection, just as Duncan Phillips imagined it would be when he bought it in 1923.

The painting captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir's friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou.

Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night.

Paris, the artistic rebirth for Chagall

In 1910, the Russian and French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985) left Russia for Paris: "I felt that, if I stayed in Vitebsk any longer, I should be covered with hair and moss», he wrote in his autobiography.

A year later, in La Ruche, he came into contact with the artistic community of the nearby quarter of Montparnasse and made friends with Guillaume Apollinaire (who would define his work "supernatural"), Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Blaise Cendrars, the poet who, from that point on, would name all his French works.

Audrey Hepburn: "Paris is always a good idea!"

• "I love the night passionately.

I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love.

I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness.

Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light.

The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space" - Guy de Maupassant

Claude Monet | Legacy

Speaking of Monet's body of work, Wildenstein said that it is "so extensive that its very ambition and diversity challenges our understanding of its importance".

His paintings produced at Giverny and under the influence of cataracts have been said to create a link between Impressionism and twentieth-century art and modern abstract art, respectively.

His later works were a "major" inspiration to Objective abstraction.

Claude Monet | Nymphéas / Water Lilies

Water Lilies / Nymphéas is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926).

The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at his home in Giverny, and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life.

Many of the works were painted while Monet suffered from cataracts.

Félix Vallotton | Figures and Portraits

Félix Edouard Vallotton (1865-1925) was a Swiss /French painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis.

Vallotton was recognized as a very accomplished portrait painter, and painted portraits of many of the leading figures in the arts of his time.

His early work included a portrait of his fellow Nabi Édouard Vuillard.

The portraits of Vallotton featured both precision and a certain cold realism.

Michel Delacroix, 1933 | Paris painting in Naïf style

French painter Michel Delacroix is an acclaimed master of the Naïf tradition and one of the most popular and successful artists in the world today.

Artist Michel Delacroix studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand.

Delacroix was educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and spent years experimenting with several different painting styles until, at the age of 35, he began producing works in the Naïf tradition, his characteristic style.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: "I want a red to be sonorous - to sound, like a bell.."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a prominent French painter and a leading figure in the development of the Impressionist style.

As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau".

Known for his distinctive soft brushwork, vibrant colors, and focus on celebrating beauty and sensuality, he captured intimate and joyful scenes of everyday life.

Jean-Paul Avisse, 1948 | Surrealist painter

Jean-Paul Avisse, French painter, is a rare and unique artistic genius of unquestionable depth, scope and power.

A self taught master of incredible details and universal concepts.

Taking over eight weeks to complete each original intricate painting.

First time viewers are further amazed to learn that Mr. Avisse creates each original painting by hand, using no computers, photographs or air-brushed techniques.

Haystacks (Claude Monet series)

Haystacks is a title of a series of impressionist paintings by Claude Monet.

The primary subjects of all of the paintings in the series are stacks of hay in the field after the harvest season.

The title refers primarily to a twenty-five canvas series (Wildenstein Index Number 1266-1290) begun in the end of summer of 1890 and continued through the following spring, using that year's harvest.

Georges Maroniez | Genre painter

Georges Philibert Charles Maroniez (1865, Douai - 1933, Paris) was a French painter, specializing in landscapes with figures.

Education and first works

Maroniez was the son of an industrialist who owned a sugar refinery in Montigny-en-Ostrevent.

He displayed artistic talent at an early age, but - although not discouraged - was expected to pursue a more professional career.

Accordingly, he studied law, and afterwards served as a magistrate in, successively, Boulogne-sur-Mer (1891), Avesnes-sur-Helpe (1894) and Cambrai (1897).

Nathalie Picoulet, 1968 | Dreams in pastel

French figure painter Nathalie Picoulet was born in Amiens, France.

After displaying an early talent for drawing, she studied the history of Art and Design before deciding to pursue a full-time career as an artist in pastels.

Since her entrance into the world of pastels, she has been doing portraits, landscapes, and seascapes. Eventually, she discovered the subject that has brought her the greatest fame and acclaim: the female figure.