Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was born in Limoges and grew up in Paris, where he left school at thirteen to become an apprentice in a porcelain factory. In 1862 he began studying under Charles Gleyre, meeting Monet, Sisley and Bazille, and in 1874 he exhibited alongside Monet, Sisley and Pissarro at the first Impressionist exhibition. From 1907 he lived at Cagnes-sur-Mer, and he went on painting there despite severe rheumatoid arthritis until his death in 1919. His Bal du moulin de la Galette of 1876, an open-air scene at a crowded dance garden in Montmartre, is among the best-known works of Impressionism, and Luncheon of the Boating Party followed in 1881. A journey to Italy that year to see Raphael and Titian turned him away from Impressionism towards firmer drawing and a more disciplined treatment of the figure, particularly of women. By the end of the 1870s he was already a successful and fashionable portrait painter. Here: Bal du moulin de la Galette, Luncheon of the Boating Party and The Church at Varengeville.