Study Auguste Renoir in Art History, View His Art and Famous Paintings
"The Pont des Arts, Paris”, Renoir, 1867
Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919, one of France’s famous artists in art history painted "The Swing", in 1876. The light is dappled just as it is when walking under a tree on a sunny day. Shadows of leaves appear on all surfaces interspersed with patches of sunlight. The atmospheric effect and courtship of young people is typical of the art he painted around this period.
Two of Auguste Renoir's famous paintings "The Swing", and "Le Moulin de la Galette", 1876, capture the "heroism of modern life", a course of subject matter suggested for artists by Baudelaire. Baudelaire suggested artists paint pictures of contemporary life in which he or she lived. Pictures would include dance halls, gardens, parks, café's, bars, and in many other places that conveyed the likeness of modern life.
Auguste Renoir uses the dappled, diffused, atmospheric light in his famous painting "Moulin de la Galette", bringing warmth and unity to the
composition. The scene is an open-air dance caught in a moment of gaiety and carefree relaxation.
Detail is only found in the foreground right figures while the rest of the painting dissolves into the atmospheric art effect of light and shadow. Brush strokes are as loose as those of Frans Hals and Diego Velazquez. As Leonardo used light into dark to bring naturalism and atmosphere to his figures and paintings, Renoir used non-linear, dappled, diffused light to harmonize his compositions, bringing a feeling of life and gaiety to the art of this period.
Auguste Renoir began to question the impressionistic art style and also his own ability to paint and draw. He traveled to Italy in 1882 specifically to view and study the works of Raphael in the Vatican.
Impressed by Ingres's linear quality and modeling, Auguste Renoir returned to France with a more disciplined brush and painted another of his famous paintings "Dance at Bougival", in 1883.
The two foreground figures are more solidly painted and do not have the diffused light atmospheric effect of previous art.
The "Bathers", painted in 1884-87, continues in this more disciplined art style, pictorially influenced by Boucher's "Bath of Diana", 1742.
The figures have the tighter more controlled effect of Ingres, but even though the figures are more active playful, they still appear stiff and rather static. The painting is appealing because of the
opalescent quality of the background contrasted with the smooth modeled skin of the young girls. This and the charm of the young girls overshadow everything else.
Auguste Renoir's subject matter becomes simpler in two famous paintings in art history, "Nude", painted in 1888, a picture of a woman pulling on her socks, and "Two Girls at the Piano", painted in 1892. Renoir's structured formality appears again in the art "Two Girls at the Piano". The linear quality is similar to the "Bathers". The foreground and background of this art is pulled together in a more united style and effect throughout the painting. The formal setting is overshadowed by the charm of the two women. Other famous artists of Impressionism are Monet, Pissarro and Degas.
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