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.

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) fut l’un des fondateurs de l’impressionnisme. Il célébra les plaisirs de la vie, les loisirs, la lumière et la figure humaine, et peignit jusqu’au bout malgré une grave arthrite.

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