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| Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
| 1841-1919 |
| European Artist |
| Renoir was born in Limoges, France and brought up in Paris. From the age of thirteen he worked as an apprentice painter, painting flowers on porcelain plates decorative fans and screens. Having saved some money, Renoir entered the Atelier Gleyre and there made friends with Monet, Sisley, Bazille, Pissarro and Cezanne. It was in the 1870s, that Renoir's Impressionism style reached its peak. He worked at Argenteuil and in Paris. He participated in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1874, 1876, 1877 and 1882 and was a founding member of the review L'Impressionniste, where he published his articles on the principles of contemporary art. Renoir achieved recognition earlier than his friends. In 1879-80, he sent several portraits to the official Salon. Renoir is one of the world's most important artists. He help start a movement which broke free of the dry and precise techniques of painting prevailing in France in the late 19th Century. Renoir, along with the other Impressionists, sought to express reality by capturing the effects of light rather than attempting "photo realism." As accomplished in portraiture and his very familiar nudes as in landscape, Renoir's work explodes in spontaneity, brilliance and luminosity. |
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