Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir’s relationship with Jules Le Coeur’s family brought friendship, patronage and even romance into his life. In 1865 Jules began courting a girl named Clémence Tréhot, and thanks to Jules Renoir met Lise, Clémence’s younger sister. Renoir was then twenty-four, seven years older than Lise. A deep mutual attraction arose between them, and they began a relationship. Lise soon became Renoir’s principal model and appears in many pictures, including Lise Sewing (1866) and Lise with a Parasol (1867, pictured), the latter exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1868. Both pictures reveal the tender feelings Renoir had for the girl, but their relationship nevertheless came to an end. In 1870 Renoir was called up for military service in the Franco-Prussian War, and while he was away Lise left him for an architect friend of Jules, whom she married in 1872. Renoir never saw or heard from her again, and the circumstances of the break-up also ended his relationship with the Le Coeur family.

From the page of In the Forest of Fontainebleau

Sunlight is a frequently recurring element in Renoir’s paintings, and as he grew older it became increasingly important in his private life too. Attacks of rheumatism that appeared in his fifties forced him to move with his family to the south of the country. He settled in Cagnes-sur-Mer near Nice, where the warm climate helped ease his pain. Here, on his country estate, “Les Collettes”, among the gnarled olive trees, he created his own Impressionist paradise, which served as the setting for countless late pictures, including The Farm at Les Collettes (1914).

From the page of Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne

Renoir once wrote: “For me a picture should be… pleasant, cheerful and pretty, yes — pretty! There are enough ugly things in life without us adding to them.” Female beauty, pleasant pastimes, blooming gardens — these were Renoir’s favourite subjects. During his childhood spent in poverty and as a struggling artist sharing a cramped Paris lodging with his fellow Impressionist Monet, he did not scorn the pleasures of life. The last picture completed by this champion of everyday enjoyment before his death on 3 December 1919 was a simple still life of apples.

From the page of Dance at the Moulin de la Galette

In the 1860s Renoir struggled to make a living from painting, but by the late 1870s he began to achieve success as a portrait painter. Members of the upper class supported him, including the wealthy publisher Georges Charpentier, who regularly commissioned him to paint members of his family. Madame Charpentier and Her Children (pictured) is perhaps the most famous portrait from this period. From 1881 the Paris art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel began regularly buying the artist’s works, and by the turn of the century Renoir had become world-famous.

From the page of The Swing

Renoir first met Aline Charigot, the young woman sitting at the table playing with a dog in Luncheon of the Boating Party, in 1880. Although he was twenty years older than her, and their early relationship was rather unsteady — they even separated for a time while Renoir travelled around Europe — their relationship later grew closer, and they finally married on 14 April 1890. They had three sons over sixteen years, Pierre, Jean and Claude; Jean became one of the finest film directors of all time.

From the page of Luncheon of the Boating Party

Renoir was an incredibly prolific artist; during his long life he produced more than 4,000 paintings, more than Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne put together. Painting was not merely an occupation for Renoir but a way of life, so when his joint complaints worsened he was terrified that his condition would force him to give it up. When he was advised to walk a lot, however, he dug in his heels, saying that “one paints with one’s hands”. Renoir did everything to save his hands, his greatest treasure; he took up billiards and juggling, and tried ball games that required manual dexterity and physical coordination. In the end he lost the battle, but his efforts extended his artistic career, and perhaps his life, by a few precious years.

From the page of Strawberries and Almonds

Gabrielle Renard was much more to Renoir than a model. When his rheumatoid arthritis worsened and threatened to end his painting career, it was Gabrielle who wedged the brush between the artist’s crippled fingers to help him continue his work. When Renoir’s wife died in 1915, Gabrielle became the lady of the house and looked after the artist for the rest of his life. She also had a great influence on the young Jean Renoir, the future filmmaker (pictured), since it was Gabrielle who took Jean, then only a few years old, to the cinema for the first time. In 1919, two years after Renoir’s death,Gabrielle married the American artist Conrad Hensler Slade and moved to the United States. She died in 1959 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, where she lived close to Jean Renoir.

From the page of Girl Combing Her Hair