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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
 The
characters of the three major figures in the history of impressionism -Monet,
Pissarro, and Renoir - are clearly differentiated as any novelist could wish.
Monet was vigorous, determined, ambitious, a little tight-fisted, never
interested in theory. Pissarro was almost a patriarchal figure, greatly admired
for his complete integrity, and a painter who was always involved in artistic
and political theory. Finally, Renoir was a man of great charm and capacity for
enjoyment; a painter who had, and was not ashamed to admit to, a certain
sensuous facility, but who combined this with a very characteristic
fastidiousness.
These three very different personalities interacted upon one another on many
levels during the years 1865-1875. They influenced one another's work and shared
the same motifs - Pissarro working with Monet in London in 1870, Renoir and
Monet painting together at La Grenouillere the year before. At times, indeed,
they painted pictures so alike that they can easily be confused. This may sound
like an ideal comradeship, but as in other artistic groups there were inevitable
differences that resulted, toward the end of the decade, in a growing apart and
separation. After 1885 the major figures, including Degas and Sisley, were
working virtually in isolation from one another.
Early Training
Renoir's early training was as a painter of porcelain. He attained considerable
skill at his craft - he was known as "Monsieur Rubens" at the factory - and was
able to save enough money to pay for his later training. It is not too
far-fetched to see a relationship between his light and feathery touch - far
more delicate than any of his colleagues' - and the certainty required from a
decorative painter. When painting on china every touch must be put down once and
more all; it needs confidence as well as elegance.
As a student at Gleyre's atelier, where he went to study painting, Renoir was
far from being revolutionary: "While others shouted, broke the window panes,
demoralized the model, disturbed the professor, I was always quiet in the
corner, very attentive, very docile, studying the model, listening to the
teacher…and it was I whom they called the revolutionary."
"The others" in this quotation need not be taken to mean Renoir's friends whom
he met at Gleyre's - Monet, Bazille and Sisley. Though hardly an ideal student,
there is no evidence that Money made any particular disturbance. He was more
likely absent than to create a disturbance.
After Renoir's first week at Gleyre's, the master came on his rounds and
stopping at Renoir's easel, said dryly: "No doubt it's to amuse yourself that
you're dabbling in paint?" Renoir replied innocently, "Why, of course; if it
didn't amuse me I can assure you I wouldn't do it!" This well-known story need
not be taken as it sometimes is, as evidence of any hostility between Renoir and
this teacher, for whom he always expressed gratitude and respect in later life.
Later Years
Toward the end of Renoir's life he continued to paint in spite of the appalling
difficulties caused by his semiparalysis and the arthritis which twisted up his
hands. He was in continual pain and had to be lifted into a wheelchair in front
of his easel, and yet he painted rich and joyful pictures - flowers, portraits
and nudes - right up to the day of his death. It is generally thought that this
brush had to be fastened by a bandage to his hand, which was so twisted that he
could no longer pick it up, but his son says that the bandage was necessary more
to protect the skin, which had become very tender, from the contact with the
wooden brush handle. His fingers could still grip the brush.
In spite of the state of his hands, his arm was as steady as that of a young
man, and his eyesight as keen. He could place a tiny dot of paint unerringly on
the canvas without resting his arm on any support.
"He had partly given up using the large indoor studio, with its big North
window. The 'cold and perfect' light annoyed him. He had a sort of glassed-in
shed built for himself, about 15 feet square, with windows that could be opened
wide. The light came in from all directions. This shelter was placed among the
olive trees and rank grass. It was almost as if he were working out of doors…it
was possible to control the light by cotton curtains, which could be pulled and
adjusted. This invention of an outside studio in which the light could be
regulated was the prefect answer to the old question of working from nature as
opposed to working indoors in the studio, since it combined the two."
It is interesting to compare this description by Jean Renoir of Renoir's studio
designed for himself in his old age, with Monet's garden studio in which he
painted the Water Lilies series. Another similarity, this time with Monet's
ingenious way of getting at the top of a big canvas…was an invention of Renoir's
which enabled him to paint relatively large pictures in his old age in spite of
his restricted movements. The unstretched canvas was nailed onto a series on
wooden slats that formed a "caterpillar" band passing over two wooden rollers,
one near the ground and the other about seven feet above it. By turning a
handle, the canvas could be unrolled in either direction, bringing the part
wanted to work on within reach of the artist seated in his wheelchair. Most of
the last pictures, according to Jean, were painted in the garden studio on his
roller system.
He was still painting - it was a flower piece - on the morning of the day he
died. It is reported that when he put down his brushed he said: "I feel I've
learnt something today."
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