Renoir: Rococo Revival (Relié)

Biographie d'Alexander Eiling

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was among the outstanding artists of the nineteenth century. His use of a vibrant palette and often loose and sketchy brushwork to capture fleeting impressions on canvas made him the quintessential Impressionist painter. His depictions of modern life in late-nineteenth-century Paris still inform our image of that time today. Yet Renoir took inspiration not only from his everyday surroundings, but also from the art of past eras.
French eighteenth-century painting was especially important to him. In fact, he and his contemporaries held it in such high regard that we meanwhile speak of a "Rococo Revival". The catalogue highlights Renoir's ties to tradition and examines his oeuvre from the viewpoint of the nineteenth century's keen appreciation for the Rococo. Juxtapositions with works by François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Antoine Watteau, as well as comparisons with artists of the Impressionist circle such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Berthe Morisot offer an opportunity to rediscover the work of Renoir.