French Impressionist

1841 - 1919
Pierre Auguste Renoir

* Notes on female Impressionist Berthe Morisot included on page 11

 Description of IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism began in France when a group of young and talented artists decided to rebel against the
established art critics, called the Salon in France, and form a new style of painting all their own.
Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time. A Critic once remarked on Monet’s painting
‘Impression Sunrise’ and said that the work was ‘only an Impression’ – not a real painting – and this is
where they got the name ‘Impressionism’.

When was the Impressionist style of art popular? 

The Impressionist movement began in the 1860s and became most popular in the 1870s and 1880s.

What are the characteristics of Impressionism? 

The Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time. They were more concerned with the light
and colour of the moment than with the details of objects they were painting. They often painted
outdoors and worked quickly to capture the light before it changed. They used rapid brush strokes
and often used unmixed colour to save time. They used unusual visual angles and common everyday
subjects. They rarely used black and didn’t use outlines!

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, France
in 1841.
When his family relocated to Paris, Pierre- Auguste painted
.
flowers on china in a porcelain factory at the age of thirteen.

In 1860 he began to take classes in the same studio as

Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille, the
men who would start the Impressionist movement.
In 1862 he was admitted to the prestigious Ecole de Beaux
Arts. Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
He then began living with Bazille and Monet. Their Le Moulin de la Galette
influence in his work is evident in the bright colors and
small brush strokes Renoir used.

In the 1870’s Renoir’s career and that of The Impressionists

became firmly established.
Impressionism is a lighter more spontaneous way of painting
It was a reaction to the strict rules in the academic art
(accepted) of the period. Paintings such as ‘Dance at the Moulin
de la Galette’ (above right) capture the time and the feeling in
Paris. Renoir had a great ability to imitate light as well as
human facial expressions
Renoir was known to work on one canvas for months at a time,
constantly adding or removing characters. Renoir, Two Young Girls at a
Renoir loved people and they are always dominant in his work Piano, 1892
Oil on Canvas.
In 1890 Renoir met and married Aline Charigot. She is the
model in Luncheon of the Boating Party.
In 1893, Renoir solidified his professional career with a solo
show at the Durand Ruel Gallery in Paris.
His children were born in the mid to late 1890’s and this change
in his life is reflected in his interest in the body in his work.

1887’s series The Bathers is unsurpassed in its depiction of the

female form, particularly the skin.
The influence of colour and the early teaching in drawing plus the
influence of Bazille and Monet culminated in a beautiful series of
women bathing a sunning themselves in a beautiful country
setting.

By the 1890’s years of painting had taken their toll on Renoir’s Pierre Renoir - Bather - 1892
body, he was suffering from arthritis.
He was living with his family outside the city of Paris and
continued to paint by having a paintbrush strapped to his arm. He
still managed to paint for twenty years until his death in 1913. Useful website for checking out

his paintings & life facts:

https://kids.kiddle.co/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir
Renoir is one of the greatest Impressionists and today his work
still sells for millions.
Renoir has been quoted as saying: “Why shouldn't art be
pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world."
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette 1876
 Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette 
(Pierre-Auguste Renoir) 1876
This painting depicts an outdoor scene of a dance on
Sunday afternoon in Paris. Renoir captures the afternoon
light flickering as it filters through the trees. The
painting captures a moment in time. It is one of the most
famous of the Impressionist paintings. A smaller version
of it once sold for over $78 million!

Also called ‘Bal du Moulin de la Galette’ 

Like many of Renoir's early paintings, Dance at le Moulin

de la Galette is a snapshot of real life and it captures
true Parisian culture. However, this canvas was unique
because of its large size. It was Renoir's most ambitious
figure painting and no artist before him had created a
canvas capturing an aspect of daily life of this size.
….It seems that his time spent painting plein-air
(outdoors) landscapes at Argenteuil prompted him use
human beings, especially women, as the focus of this
canvas.
Renoir uses brightly coloured brushstrokes to add

Composition:  movement to the figures as well as depth to this piece.

Like Manet did in La Musique aux Tuileries, Renoir included
a number of portraits in Dance at la Moulin de la Galette
and the majority of portraits were his friends. By cutting
off figures in the piece, Renoir suggests that the scene
continued beyond the frame……..
There is great interplay between the main figures -
gestures & glances
Renoir bathes the figures in sun and shadow, breaking up
the composition with patches of light and capturing the
vibrancy (liveliness) of the scene. He blends colours that
worked well for him and this results in a painting that is
rich in form and with a fluidity of brush stroke.
This innovative style and the grand scale of Dance at la
Moulin de la Galette is a sign of Renoir's artistic drive.
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Colour Palette: 
Renoir uses brightly coloured brush strokes and opts to
blend colours that suit him best. His refusal to use black Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
together with the absence of outlines are traditional
Impressionist techniques.

Renoir uses patches of soft colour and combines this with

vibrantly coloured figures, to give the impression of
speckled light beaming through the trees. He creates the
patches of light with soft pinks and purples, while for the
figures he uses bolder shades of blue, red, and green
for the clothing.

Lighting: 
Renoir's use of light in Dance at la Moulin de la Galette as
well as its sketchiness is typically Impressionistic. He
bathes the figures in both sun and shadow and spots of
natural and artificial light divide the composition and
depict the vibrancy of the scene. The sunlight contrasts
well with the dark clothing, and Renoir's bright
brushstrokes add movement to the painting.

Sunlight filtering through the trees gives Dance at la

Moulin de la Galette a cheerful and summery feel as well as
a sense of immediacy. Renoir reveals his true talent in this
picture. It is a major composition that links the art of
collective portrait, still life, and landscape painting. 7
Renoir - Luncheon of the Boating Party 1881
The Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881 - RENOIR
•Renoir loved painting social scenes, of people enjoying themselves.
He often used family members and friends as models for his
paintings.
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Genre: Painting of Social Scene

Subject matter:
•Renoir painted his friends relaxing on the terrace of a
restaurant in a small village on the banks of the river Seine.
•They would have rowed down to this popular spot on boats and
stopped here for lunch.
•A few of the characters are wearing straw ‘boater’ hats.
•In this painting, the girl with the dog is ‘Aline’, who would become
Colour : Colour is balanced between the
his wife.
•The guy behind her is the son of the restaurant owner – his sister dark greys and blues of the clothing worn
is leaning on the railing. by the characters, and the whites of the
•The guy sitting opposite Aline is Renoir’s friend, the artist Gustav tablecloth, and vests/jackets . The red and
Caillebotte. yellow elements play an important part
•The girl in the blue dress is Angele, a flower seller and singer. The adding the bright fun atmosphere to the
rest of the boating party is made up of writers, actresses etc painting.

Composition: Technique: This painting has the typical

•We are led through this painting by the diagonal terrace rail on
the left – it creates a sense of depth.
•The figures in the foreground turned to face each other creates
space and depth also.
•It is a very balanced and busy composition.
•We are drawn around the painting with the gazes of each
character
‘soft focus’ look of Renoir’s paintings. None
of the details have defined or hard edges.
It is painted in the impressionist style,
with loose but finely worked
brushstrokes.
Renoir - Les Parapluies 1883 (the
Umbrellas)
Type: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 115 x 180 cm
Location: The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin \

The main figure is a milliner’s assistant, carrying a milliner’s

basket, who was probably out on an errand delivering a hat to
a wealthy customer. The basket is closed with a black
lacquered lid, to protect the hat, and the girl’s hand is
reflected in the shiny black of its lacquered cover.

While all the other figures in the painting wear hats, the
assistant, a mere shop-girl, wears none, nor does she carry an
umbrella to protect her from the rain. Her dress is drab and
unadorned in dramatic contrast with the elegant finery of the
other figures, who all clearly come from a much higher social
strata.

Yet she is the beauty and the main focus of the painting.
She has just caught the attention of the man immediately
behind her, who may be Renoir himself, the likeness is not
dissimilar, and looks away modestly from his gaze.

In the painting, Renoir captures the moment, by putting us,

the viewer, right in the middle of the scene, focusing our
attention on the girl with the downward sweep of the
opened and half opened umbrellas.

This painting shows how Renoir was moving away from the pure
‘Impressionist’ style - the left is more solid and defined
whereas the bright figures on the right are more
impressionistic in style.
Berthe Morisot: 1841-1895 French
Impressionist.
- the only female artist to have exhibited at the first
Le Berceau (The Cradle),
impressionist exhibition.
1872, Musée d'Orsay
Background info & Subject Matter:

She was a dedicated Impressionist who painted mostly family

scenes of her sisters, nieces and her daughter Julie. This
was considered appropriate subject matter for a female
artist at the time. She continued to paint and exhibit
successfully in her married life too.

Friends with Edouard MANET (who inspired the

impressionists like Monet) and he encouraged her to paint
contemporary life and introduced her to the other
impressionists.
He really influenced her style & technique

Morisot’s Technique & Style:

Morisot studied light and colour and how they affected each
other. She painted quickly outdoors to capture the changing
sunlight using short, rough brushstrokes of contrasting
colours painted side by side to create optical mixing on the
canvas.
She also used a wet-on-wet oil painting technique which gave
blurred edges (that means she didn’t wait for the paint to
set before adding another layer of paint but painted wet
paint over wet paint). 11
Julie Manet et son Lévrier Laerte, 1893, Musée Marmottan
Monet
It is set up in a before/after format.
It is a summary
Useful for being of what
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Before Impressionism
The subject matter in paintings
consisted of portraits of rich or famous
people ,religious themes, historical
themes.
The style in paintings was realism.
Artists painted to make the subject look
like a photograph with careful attention to
detail and anatomy
Artists painted to make a living. Because
they were painting on commission, they
painted exactly what the buyer wanted to
see. Artists were trained to paint as
realistically as possible.
The lighting in portraits was mostly
indoors. Colors were subdued shades.
There were lots of browns and yellows.
can be used
& innovative as “Impressionism’
about a reference.
After Impressionism
The subject matter in paintings was
everyday people doing everyday activities
or landscapes.
The style was called Impressionism
because the artist painted their
impression of the subject with large
brushstrokes and lots of color and
reflections. The painting did not have to
look exactly like a photograph.
Artists painted for enjoyment, not to
make a living. Artists painted whatever
they wanted to, however they wanted to
paint it. Impressionism made art
accessible to everyday people.
Artists went outside and captured
lighting conditions, reflections, weather
and leisure time activities. They used
small brushstrokes of color next to each
other that were blended by the viewer's
eye. 12