Impresionismo auguste renoir biography

Summary of Impressionism

Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of modern painting. At some point in the 1860s, a group of young artists decided to paint, very simply, what they saw, thought, and felt. They weren’t interested in painting history, mythology, or the lives of great men, and they didn’t seek perfection in visual appearances. Instead, as their name suggests, the Impressionists tried to get down on canvas an “impression” of how a landscape, thing, or person appeared to them at a certain moment in time. This often meant using much lighter and looser brushwork than painters had up until that point, and painting out of doors, en plein air. The Impressionists also rejected official exhibitions and painting competitions set up by the French government, instead organizing their own group exhibitions, which the public were initially very hostile to. All of these moves predicted the emergence of modern art, and the whole associated philosophy of the avant-garde.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• The Impressionists used looser brushwork and lighter colors than previous artists. They abandoned traditional three-dimensional perspective and rejected the clarity of form that had previously served to distinguish the more important elements of a picture from the lesser ones. For this reason, many critics faulted Impressionist paintings for their unfinished appearance and seemingly amateurish quality.
• Picking up on the ideas of Gustave Courbet, the Impressionists aimed to be painters of the real: they aimed to extend the possible subjects for paintings. Getting away from depictions of idealized forms and perfect symmetry, they concentrated on the world as they saw it, which was imperfect in a myriad of ways.
• Scientific thought in the Impressionist era was beginning to recognize that what the eye perceived and what the brain understood were two different things. The Impressionists sought to capture the former - the optical effects of

Painting for two months in the summer of 1869 at a boating and bathing complex outside Paris called La Grenouillère, Renoir and his friend Claude Monet captured the effects of the sun streaming through the trees on the rippling water.

Using broad, loose brushstrokes in a sketch-like technique and a brightened palette, they developed what would become known as the Impressionist aesthetic.

Organized with the help of friends Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Camille Pissarro, Renoir and Monet held exhibitions dedicated to Impressionism as a means to bypass the strict tradition of the more conservative Salon de Paris—the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Although a founding member of the Impressionist movement, Renoir ceased to exhibit after 1877.

His love of portraiture and images of well-dressed Parisian pleasure seekers created a bridge from Impressionism’s more experimental aims to a modern, middle-class art public.

On a trip to Italy in 1881, Renoir became enamored with the “grandeur and simplicity” of High Renaissance artists like Raphael and his figures consequently became more crisply drawn and sculptural in character.

Integrating more line and composition into his more mature works, Renoir created some of his era’s most timeless canvases.

Painting dozens of nudes, Renoir specialized in

Renoir particular genius lies in the way he applied Impressionists technique and theory not only to landscape, still life and painting figures out of door, but also to compositions, figures and portraits, and applied his own very personal vision to the type of subject chosen by French eighteenth century painters: Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard. He painted them ruddy and orange the sunshine, slender at first, them plump, opulent but never indecent. Caught its atmosphere of carefree joie de vivre, and fresh uninhibited sense of enjoyment characteristic of middle class circles and above all of the students. The world he paints glorifies, simple pleasures and the happy dreams of youth. He loved the young of all ages; he seems to have been on of very few painters who could convey the subtle appearing of young people and various aspects of their characters. He also loved all women , from little girls to adolescents, working girls and plump peasant women, to fashionable upper middle class ladies. He had a special gift of painting female nudes with warmth and affection, making light play on their fresh delicate skin  seemed to come to life under his touch. He painted women bathing sparkling with pearly rosy, golden reflection towards the end of his life .
Renoir was born at Limoges but came to Paris with his family when he was still very young, and in 1854 went into a porcelain factory as a china decorator. He very soon gave this up and began painting fans in the eightieth century tradition to earn a living , and also painted decorative blinds. In 1862 he put his name down both for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and for Gleyre?s studio simultaneously, and there met Bazille, Monet and Sisley. Not longer after, when he was working, as did so many of his contemporaries in the forest of Fontainebleau, he made the acquaintance of Diaz who advised hem , even before Manet did, to give up dark colours and use a lighter palette. Renoir exhibited at The Salon fairly regularly, b