Auguste Renoir: 320 Plates

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is French painter who was important figure in the development of the Impressionist movement. As a celebrator of feminine beauty "Renoir is the last representative of a tradition which runs in a straight line from Rubens to Watteau." Renoir's artworks are famous for their vivacious light and saturated color, most frequently focusing on people in friendly and intimate compositions. The female nudes were one of his primary themes. In typical Impressionist manner, Renoir suggested the details of a picture through liberally brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their environment. Famed for his sensual nudes and charming scenes of pretty women, Renoir was a far more complex and thoughtful painter than generally assumed. He was a founding member of the Impressionist movement, nevertheless he ceased to exhibit with the group after 1877. From the 1880s until well into the twentieth century, he developed a monumental, classically inspired style that influenced such avant-garde giants as Pablo Picasso.