\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter. \par
Born into a family of craftsmen, at the age of thirteen he entered the Parisian china factory of the Levy brothe
rs as an apprentice, remaining there until 1858. In 1862 he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, while frequenting the studio of the painter Charles Gleyre, where he made friends with Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. In 1864 he accompanied them on a visi
t to the area around Fontainebleau where he began to make studies of the landscape following in the footsteps of the painters of the Barbizon School. It was during this period that he met the landscape painter Diaz de la Pe±a, who encouraged him to light
en his palette and paint \i en plein air\i0 . The first works he painted after his return to Paris show the influence of the Realist painter Gustave Courbet (\i At MΦre AntonyÆs Inn\i0 , 1866, Stockholm, National Museum). In 1874 at the first Impressioni
st exhibition, he showed one of his masterpieces, \i The Stage \i0 (London, Courtauld Institute), which demonstrates his twofold interest in scenes of Parisian life and the study of light. Two years later he produced one of the supreme works of Impressio
nist painting, the \i Dance at the Moulin de la Galette\i0 (Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay). The large canvas \i Mme Charpentier and her Children\i0 (1878, New York, Metropolitan Museum) firmly established RenoirÆs reputation. In 1881 he made a series of journey
s in search of new stimuli that could reinvigorate an Impressionism now drained of inspiration. After a brief and disappointing visit to North Africa, he went to Italy, where he studied Renaissance painting and the ancient frescoes of Pompeii with partic
ular interest. The great masters of the Italian Renaissance enthralled him, inducing him to shift direction in his painting. Out of this came the manner that Renoir himself called \i aigre\i0 , or ôtart,ö but which the critics more appropriately defined
as ôIngresque,ö as it was clearly influenced by the neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, as well as by the painting of the Italian Renaissance (\i The Bathers\i0 , Philadelphia, Museum of Art). The works of the \i aigre\i0 period are chara
cterized by precise and essential forms, extremely careful drawing, and sober and austere colors. Toward the end of the century Renoir was struck by a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis that confined him to a wheelchair within a few years. Despite his i
llness, the painter continued to work, painting chiefly portraits and female nudes in which the influence of the coloring of Titian and Peter Paul Rubens is evident. From 1900 onward he spent long periods on the C⌠te dÆAzur and settled at Cagnes-sur-Mer
in 1903. The exclusive subjects of his last works were monumental female nudes, painted with a soft and fluid brushstroke that perfectly harmonizes figures with setting (\i Bathers\i0 , 1918-19, Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay).
