http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/charles-saatchis-great-masterpieces-renoir-andfriends-longsummer/
Pierre-Auguste Renoir grew up near the Louvre, and liked to religiously study the masters. He had begun painting by the time he was 13, working at a porcelain factory creating flower designs. Many believe that throughout his artistic career he used only five colours in his palette, and that his youth spent painting ceramics taught him how to combine these hues successfully.
In 1860, Renoir was to join a studio and meet fellow artists Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley; he spent much time sketching with Monet at La Grenouillère, a bathing spot on the Seine. They were both transfixed by the possibilities of painting light and water. It was to be a critical episode, as they developed a technique and colour range that would define the Impressionist movement.
Both came to the realisation that the colour of shadows was neither brown nor black, but rather an echo of the colour of surrounding objects – an effect to be known later as “diffuse reflection”. The two artists shared a virtually identical approach during this time, and continued to work together, until each of them matured towards more personal styles.
Renoir’s work was rejected numerous times by the influential, establishment-organised Paris Salon. Eventually, in 1874, along with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and other unaccepted artists, the first Impressionist exhibition was mounted. The work was not well received critically, but a few paintings were more warmly appreciated by some influential visitors. The group persisted, and Renoir ultimately contributed a range of paintings in 1877 for the third Impressionist exhibition, which included his transcendent picture The Swing, and Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette.
Le Moulin de la Galette, in Montmartre, used to serve as a centre for Sunday leisure during the 1870s. Due to its proximity to Renoir’s home, he would regularly attend the weekly local gatherings alongside his friends and enjoy the festivities – and of course it was to provide him with a delightful theme for his work.
This lively open-air café and dance hall was frequented by many artists living in Paris at the time. On Sundays, fashionable Parisians would dress up and meet there to drink, dance, flirt and enjoy the speciality pancakes, the galettes.
Most of the figures depicted in Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette were Renoir’s colleagues who had happily agreed to pose for him, even helping carry the large blank canvas to the café.
Although Renoir included several friends in the painting, his ultimate goal was to express the carefree ambience of the popular café. He deliberately cut off figures at the sides in the painting, to suggest that the scene continued beyond the canvas frame. Working in the café courtyard, he chose not to prepare any preliminary sketches.
Renoir’s younger brother, Edmond, claimed: “He took up residence there for half a year, became acquainted with the little world of the place and its particular life that no models would have conveyed. Having got into the atmosphere of that charming little restaurant, he depicted with great enthusiasm the unrestrained hurly-burly that prevailed there.”
The Impressionists’ fascination with the play of light is clearly in evidence in Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, with its parallel relationship between the lively dancing figures and the blaze of the colours. Renoir was determined to complete the work before the summer ended to avoid the changing sunlight, and it took him from late May to late August, spending all his afternoons at the café. His artist friends knew that he was finding it troublesome, as the wind would disturb the large canvas, but they continued to encourage him.
The painting was to be practically unnoticed when it was exhibited at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877. It only began to attract real interest 20 years later, after it was included in a show at the Musée du Luxembourg. The picture electrified Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, and they both produced their own variations of it.
Following that exhibition, Renoir’s reputation was greatly enhanced, and he travelled to Algeria, Italy and southern France for inspiration. As his fame grew, he decided to settle down and marry his long-time girlfriend Aline Charigot, with whom he already shared a child, Pierre. They had two more sons, Jean in 1894 and Claude in 1901. Both Pierre and Jean would eventually work within the film industry – Jean was to become a legendary film-maker, revered for his movies The Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game. Pierre would become a noted film actor seen in the enchanting Les Enfants du Paradis.
As Renoir aged, his work proved to be physically exacting for him. In the mid-1890s, he started to suffer from rheumatism, a disease that would affect him for the rest of his life. As the effects became harsher, he spent more time in southern France, where the climate was beneficial. He finally settled in the small village of Cagnes, but there was no escaping the condition that was eventually to disfigure his hands, leaving his fingers permanently curled.
By 1910, Renoir was no longer able to walk, but, despite the advanced stages of the rheumatism, his eagerness to work was still consuming – he simply strapped a paintbrush to his fingers so he could continue to paint.
Renoir’s masterpiece formed part of the great artist Gustave Caillebotte’s collection from 1879 to 1894, but was later claimed by the French government due to the non-payment of death duties. Some months before his death, Renoir was able to go to Paris to see his work Madame Georges Charpentier, which had been recently acquired by the Louvre. He was wheeled through the museum for a last visit, to view his own painting displayed among the works of the masters he had venerated throughout his life.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir grew up near the Louvre, and liked to religiously study the masters. He had begun painting by the time he was 13, working at a porcelain factory creating flower designs. Many believe that throughout his artistic career he used only five colours in his palette, and that his youth spent painting ceramics taught him how to combine these hues successfully.
In 1860, Renoir was to join a studio and meet fellow artists Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley; he spent much time sketching with Monet at La Grenouillère, a bathing spot on the Seine. They were both transfixed by the possibilities of painting light and water. It was to be a critical episode, as they developed a technique and colour range that would define the Impressionist movement.
Both came to the realisation that the colour of shadows was neither brown nor black, but rather an echo of the colour of surrounding objects – an effect to be known later as “diffuse reflection”. The two artists shared a virtually identical approach during this time, and continued to work together, until each of them matured towards more personal styles.
Renoir’s work was rejected numerous times by the influential, establishment-organised Paris Salon. Eventually, in 1874, along with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and other unaccepted artists, the first Impressionist exhibition was mounted. The work was not well received critically, but a few paintings were more warmly appreciated by some influential visitors. The group persisted, and Renoir ultimately contributed a range of paintings in 1877 for the third Impressionist exhibition, which included his transcendent picture The Swing, and Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette.
Le Moulin de la Galette, in Montmartre, used to serve as a centre for Sunday leisure during the 1870s. Due to its proximity to Renoir’s home, he would regularly attend the weekly local gatherings alongside his friends and enjoy the festivities – and of course it was to provide him with a delightful theme for his work.
This lively open-air café and dance hall was frequented by many artists living in Paris at the time. On Sundays, fashionable Parisians would dress up and meet there to drink, dance, flirt and enjoy the speciality pancakes, the galettes.
Most of the figures depicted in Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette were Renoir’s colleagues who had happily agreed to pose for him, even helping carry the large blank canvas to the café.
Although Renoir included several friends in the painting, his ultimate goal was to express the carefree ambience of the popular café. He deliberately cut off figures at the sides in the painting, to suggest that the scene continued beyond the canvas frame. Working in the café courtyard, he chose not to prepare any preliminary sketches.
Renoir’s younger brother, Edmond, claimed: “He took up residence there for half a year, became acquainted with the little world of the place and its particular life that no models would have conveyed. Having got into the atmosphere of that charming little restaurant, he depicted with great enthusiasm the unrestrained hurly-burly that prevailed there.”
The Impressionists’ fascination with the play of light is clearly in evidence in Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, with its parallel relationship between the lively dancing figures and the blaze of the colours. Renoir was determined to complete the work before the summer ended to avoid the changing sunlight, and it took him from late May to late August, spending all his afternoons at the café. His artist friends knew that he was finding it troublesome, as the wind would disturb the large canvas, but they continued to encourage him.
The painting was to be practically unnoticed when it was exhibited at the Impressionist exhibition of 1877. It only began to attract real interest 20 years later, after it was included in a show at the Musée du Luxembourg. The picture electrified Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, and they both produced their own variations of it.
Following that exhibition, Renoir’s reputation was greatly enhanced, and he travelled to Algeria, Italy and southern France for inspiration. As his fame grew, he decided to settle down and marry his long-time girlfriend Aline Charigot, with whom he already shared a child, Pierre. They had two more sons, Jean in 1894 and Claude in 1901. Both Pierre and Jean would eventually work within the film industry – Jean was to become a legendary film-maker, revered for his movies The Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game. Pierre would become a noted film actor seen in the enchanting Les Enfants du Paradis.
As Renoir aged, his work proved to be physically exacting for him. In the mid-1890s, he started to suffer from rheumatism, a disease that would affect him for the rest of his life. As the effects became harsher, he spent more time in southern France, where the climate was beneficial. He finally settled in the small village of Cagnes, but there was no escaping the condition that was eventually to disfigure his hands, leaving his fingers permanently curled.
By 1910, Renoir was no longer able to walk, but, despite the advanced stages of the rheumatism, his eagerness to work was still consuming – he simply strapped a paintbrush to his fingers so he could continue to paint.
Renoir’s masterpiece formed part of the great artist Gustave Caillebotte’s collection from 1879 to 1894, but was later claimed by the French government due to the non-payment of death duties. Some months before his death, Renoir was able to go to Paris to see his work Madame Georges Charpentier, which had been recently acquired by the Louvre. He was wheeled through the museum for a last visit, to view his own painting displayed among the works of the masters he had venerated throughout his life.
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