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Pierre Auguste Renoir

© Nick Burton

Pierre August Renoir was born in Limoges, France, in 1841, the son of working class parents. The family moved to Paris in 1845, and the young Renoir was apprenticed to a Parisian porcelain and earthenware factory at the age of thirteen. He spent four years there, quickly becoming a skilled decorator. During this time, he grew to love great art at The Louvre, particularly the voluptuous, rococo images of Francois Boucher.

Renoir began studying art with money he had saved from his employment in commercial work, and he spent many years in near poverty,and it is well known that even at the age of thirty, Renoir would bring scraps form his father's dinner table and share them with the equally destitute Claude Monet. When the Impressionist movement began to take hold, Renoir was one of its leaders, organizing most of its exhibitions and sales. He gradually began to earn money from his work, thanks in part to Paul Durand-Ruel, the art dealer who became the champion of Impressionism.

In 1881, Renoir began his travels in Algeria and Italy, and married Aline Charogot, a model who he had painted in his "Luncheon of The Boating Party" (1881)

. Renoir also began to suffer from arthritis, a condition that lasted until his death in 1919. His condition became so intense that he eventually lost the use of his legs, and could only paint with a brush fastened to his hand. Even then, his paintings captured the warm , sensual light that his Impressionist period paintings had.

Still , it is the Impressionist works that are Renoir's legacy - vibrant portraits, flowers and magnificent nudes. His abilities as a portrait artist were unmatched and in canvases such as "The Loge" (1874) and "Portrait Of a Girl," (1878) he captures the true essence of female beauty . His nudes, particularly "Nude In The Sunlight" (1876) and "Nude" (1880) have been compared favorably to the nudes of Titian and Reubens.

There are a couple of Renoir sites worth visiting to see his work . Auguste Renoir The Gallery at http://www.renoir.org.yu/ has an exhaustive collection of reproductions, easily accessed from a pull -down menu. There is a more limited collection located at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/... in case you don't have a lot of browsing time.

- Nick Burton

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