The New International Encyclopædia/Renoir, Auguste

RENOIR, re-nwär′, Auguste (1841—). A French figure and landscape painter, born in Limoges. He studied in the atelier of Gleyre and with Monet and the other Impressionists, and exhibited in 1874 at the first Impressionist Salon. Renoir is one of the most distinctive of the group, and, like Degas, devoted himself principally to figures, especially portraits of young women and children, in which he renders the texture of flesh and the most fleeting shades of expression with astonishing adroitness. His figures are painted out of doors, and are subject to every variation of light and reflection. He also painted landscape, fruit, and flower subjects, and groups of figures. His paintings include: “La loge;” “La danse;” “Danse à la ville;” “Le déjeuner à Bougival;” “La balancoire;” “Le pont de Chatou;” and “Jeunes filles au piano.” Among his portraits are those of Wagner and Claude Monet. Consult: Duret, Les peintres impressionistes . . . (Paris, 1879), and Alexandre, Catalogue de l'Exposition de A. Renoir (Paris, 1892).