THE ARTIST Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) French Impressionist Painter
WHERE IN THE WORLD? Ancient to Modern
To understand the story of art, we can look at the intent or purpose people had for making it. The ancient and classical art of Greece and Rome was made primarily for worship purposes, whether that be animals, gods, or emperors. Art of the medieval period, and those periods it influenced, had a story telling element and was made for the education of illiterate masses or for enhancing morals. A type of realism was introduced in the Renaissance, but the story element of the art was still of primary importance. In light of this long period of historical subjects and mythological themes, it is amazing that a new idea was born; that art be made as a response to nature alone. Painters took the realistic qualities of the past, which had developed as strict compositional rules since the time of the Renaissance, and applied them to an observation of nature alone. The landscape was unheard of as a subject standing on its own until the early 1800s with the invention of Realism. Inspired by the Realist’s habit of painting on site, Impressionists, in the 1850s took art into a completely new direction by changing the color palette from dark colors to bright and light colors as they viewed nature at different times and seasons. Compared to traditional paintings seen in the academies, Impressionist works seemed very strange. Loose brush strokes looked like the initial steps made at the beginning of a traditional approach to painting, but these were finished works of art in their own right. Public Parisian locations were full of people and Impressionists ditched the studio in order to paint outside. Post-Impressionists and the Expressionists that followed freed themselves from observation of color and form and gave artists permission to invent. This invention was purely in the hands of the individual artist and there we see a complete separation from observation of nature to non-objective art; art based on color or shapes with no connection to subject. Outside of this very brief overview, we see many variants to the story, such as artists who pursued nature study while abstraction was at its peak, but this foundation will give you an important outline in which to view the art of Europe within this course.
Renoir began his artistic career as a craftsman at the age of ten. For five years he painted landscape scenes and flower arrangements on porcelain in a Paris workshop. At that time he learned good craftsmanship, developed an eye for detail, and gained a thorough knowledge in the use of colors. He diligently studied the paintings of 18th century painters. Joining the studio of Gleyre at the Paris School of Fine Arts, he quickly became known as a revolutionary to the academic style. The 350 year-old school, having trained most of the great artists in Europe, was split in opinion as Courbet and Delacroix, of the previous generation, had already tainted the school’s strict ideals with new ideas. Interested in rich color effects, Auguste Renoir developed the Impressionistic style along with his friend, Claude Monet. Their experimental works used soft brush strokes while capturing scenes of modern Parisian life. Women Impressionist painters of the time, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, were required to paint women and children in the private spaces of homes to meet the social norms of their time. Renoir focused on family life by choice. Renoir painted his daughters at the piano and in the garden. When he did paint in social settings, like many Impressionists, he showed us what the audience looked like. The focus of his paintings was on the people attending a performance, rather than on the performers. Renoir also painted still life arrangements with flowers. Renoir most emulated the contemporary. The focus of his paintings were only those subjects that he saw in his time. In his opinion, historical themes and costumes were not worthy of representing. He lived a long life. In the later part of his career, suffering from arthritis, he had brushes tied to his crippled hands in order to continue painting. We can learn to see more as we make a copy of another artist’s work. Paint a simple study of Luncheon of the Boating Party or chose to paint a different painting that includes the primary colors. Within the painting identify or emphasize the primary colors: yellow, red, and blue.
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