Portrait de la poétesse Alice Vallières-Merzbach by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
two young nude women by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Fruit still life (figs and currants) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Les Fraises by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Paysage de l'Île-de-France by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Vases boules by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Fog on Guernsey by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Coco Reading by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Paysage méditerranéen by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Bridge Over a River by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Maisons à Cagnes by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Olive trees in the garden by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1841–1919 · French

Renoir painted porcelain before he painted canvases. He was born in 1841[7] in Limoges, the porcelain capital of France, and his family moved to Paris when he was three. At thirteen, financial difficulties ended his schooling, and he was apprenticed to a porcelain factory. His drawing ability got him chosen to paint designs on fine china. The training in decorative colour and surface stayed with him for life.

Key facts

Lived
1841–1919, French[7]
Movement
[7]
Works held in
23 museums[1]

Biography

He met Monet, Sisley, and Bazille at Charles Gleyre's studio in the early 1860s. In 1869[7], he and Monet painted side by side at La Grenouillere, a bathing spot on the Seine, producing some of the earliest distinctly Impressionist work. They co-founded the first Impressionist exhibition in April 1874 with Pissarro and others. Of the group, Renoir was the one most drawn to people. His subjects are eating, dancing, talking, sitting in the sun, doing very little. The paint itself seems warm.

Luncheon of the Boating Party, painted in 1881[7], includes his future wife Aline Charigot as the woman on the left playing with a small dog. She was a dressmaker, twenty years his junior. They married in 1890. The model Suzanne Valadon, later a significant painter in her own right, posed for several of his works during this period.

Rheumatoid arthritis set in around 1892[7] and progressively crippled his hands. In 1907 he moved south to Cagnes-sur-Mer, near the Mediterranean, seeking warmer air. The commonly repeated story is that brushes were strapped to his paralysed fingers. The reality is more precise: he could still grip a brush, but an assistant had to place it in his permanently clenched hand. Bandages visible in late photographs prevented skin irritation rather than holding brushes in place. Film footage from 1915 shows the seventy-four-year-old painting at his easel while his fourteen-year-old son Claude arranged the palette and placed brushes in his hand.

He kept painting until the day he died, in December 1919[7], at seventy-eight.

Timeline

  1. 1841Born in Limoges, France, the sixth of seven children. His father was a tailor of modest means.
  2. 1854At 13, apprenticed at a porcelain factory in Paris, painting floral motifs on cups and vases.
  3. 1862At 21, entered Gleyre's studio in Paris, where he met Monet, Sisley, and Bazille.
  4. 1876At 35, completed Bal du moulin de la Galette at a Montmartre dance hall, capturing dappled sunlight and Parisian leisure.
  5. 1881At 40, travelled to Italy and was deeply influenced by Raphael's frescoes, prompting a shift towards a more classical style.
  6. 1919Died aged 78 at his home in Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence, still painting despite severe rheumatoid arthritis that had crippled his hands.

Notable Works

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Where to See Pierre-Auguste Renoir

6 museums worldwide.

Plan your visit →

  • Philadelphia Museum of Art

    Philadelphia, United States

    38 works

    Philadelphia's 38 Renoirs trace to the 1963 Carroll Tyson bequest and later Meyer de Schauensee gifts. The Great Bathers (1884), Renoir's ambitious attempt to marry Impressionist colour with classical figure drawing, sits at the core of a group that covers his Argenteuil years through the Cagnes period.

    Museum detailsMap

  • Art Institute of Chicago

    Chicago, United States

    32 works
    Museum detailsMap

  • Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume Collection

    Musée de l'Orangerie, France

    46 works

    Paris dealer Paul Guillaume assembled this group in the 1920s; his widow Domenica (Jean Walter) gifted it to the French state. The 46 Renoirs lean heavily on late nudes and intimate portraits, shown in the rooms Guillaume once hung them in at home before the Orangerie rebuild.

    Museum details

  • Museo Soumaya

    Mexico City, Mexico

    24 works
    Museum details

  • Fitzwilliam Museum

    Cambridge, United Kingdom

    26 works
    Museum detailsMap

  • Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

    Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    16 works
    Museum detailsMap

Related Artists

Eugène Louis Boudin

Eugène Louis Boudin

1824–1898 · French

Claude Monet

Claude Monet

1840–1926 · French

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet

1832–1883 · French

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro

1830–1903 · French

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

1834–1917 · French

Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley

1839–1899 · British

Plan your visit to see Pierre-Auguste Renoir →

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Pierre auguste renoir art movement?
    Renoir painted in the innovative Impressionist style of fleeting brushstrokes, which suggest movement and transient light. His view of Paris rejuvenated with splendid new boulevards is exemplified in The Grand Boulevards, 1875[7].
  • What is pierre auguste renoir famous for?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir is famed for conveying joyful atmospheres, moving crowds, and natural and artificial light in small, flickering brushstrokes. He included some of his friends when he put up his easel in the garden.
  • What was pierre auguste renoir known for?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known for conveying joyful atmospheres, moving crowds, and natural and artificial light in small, flickering brushstrokes. He included some of his friends when he put up his easel in the garden.
  • When did pierre auguste renoir die?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir died in 1919[7] at the age of 78.
  • When did pierre auguste renoir start painting?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir started painting china as an apprentice at a porcelain workshop in 1854[7]. He later turned to painting fans and blinds.
  • Where did pierre auguste renoir live?
    From 1896[7] until 1907, Pierre-Auguste Renoir lived in the small village of Essoyes in the Champagne region of north-central France. Essoyes sits quietly on the banks of the River Ource, a tributary of the Seine, slightly under 50 kilometres south.
  • Where was pierre auguste renoir born?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841[7] in France. Pierre-Auguste Renoir died in 1919[7], aged 78.
  • Who was pierre auguste renoir?
    Pierre Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges on 25 February 1841[7], the sixth child of Léonard Renoir and Marguerite Merlet. Three years later, the Renoir family relocated to Paris, and in 1848[7], Auguste began attending a school run by the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes. He excelled in musical theory and was soon accepted into the choir at the Église Saint-Eustac.
  • Why did pierre auguste renoir paint?
    Pierre-Auguste Renoir aimed to convey the joyful atmosphere, the moving crowd, and the natural and artificial light in small, flickering brushstrokes. He included some of his friends when he put up his easel in the garden.
  • Pierre auguste renoir techniques?
    In 1880[7], the thinnest blues were washed transparently over the cream ground, which glows through and appears pink in contrast to the blue. For the palest highlights, white was brushed wet into the blues, but still so thinly that the cream ground generally remains visible.
  • What was pierre auguste renoir most famous painting?
    One of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's famous paintings is The Moulin de la Galette. His main aim was to convey the joyful atmosphere, the moving crowd, and the natural and artificial light in small, flickering brushstrokes.
  • Pierre-auguste renoir interesting facts?
    Pierre Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges on 25 February 1841[7]. He excelled in musical theory and was soon accepted into the choir at the Église Saint-Eustac.

Sources

Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

  1. [1] museum Courtauld Gallery Used for: museum holdings.
  2. [2] museum Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Used for: museum holdings.
  3. [3] museum Hungarian National Gallery Used for: museum holdings.
  4. [4] museum Clark Art Institute Used for: museum holdings.
  5. [5] museum Städel Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  6. [6] museum Ulster Museum Used for: museum holdings.
  7. [7] wikipedia Wikipedia: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
  8. [8] book Susie Hodge, Art Used for: stylistic analysis.
  9. [9] book Hodge, Susie;, Artists at Home Used for: museum holdings.
  10. [10] book Linda Bolton, Art revolutions _ Impressionism Used for: stylistic analysis.
  11. [11] book Linda Bolton, Art revolutions _ Impressionism_1 Used for: stylistic analysis.
  12. [12] book Linda Bolton, Art revolutions _ Impressionism_2 Used for: stylistic analysis.
  13. [13] book Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Delphi Complete Works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Illustrated) (Masters of Art Book 11) Used for: biography.
  14. [14] book Nathalia Brodskaya, Impressionism Used for: biography.
  15. [15] book Brodskaïa, Nathalia, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (Essential) Used for: biography.
  16. [16] book Masterpieces of western art : a history of art in 900 individual studies from the Gothic to the present day Used for: stylistic analysis.
  17. [17] book Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Masters of Art - Pierre-Auguste Renoir Used for: biography.
  18. [18] book Thomas Stevens;, Pierre-Auguste Renoir Used for: stylistic analysis.
  19. [19] book Nathalia Brodskaya, Renoir Used for: stylistic analysis.

Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.

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