Do you really know Pierre-Auguste Renoir? The Musée d’Orsay is dedicating two exhibitions to him, for the first time in honor of his fortieth birthday. “Renoir and Love” (until July 19) but also Renoir through his drawn works (until July 5), on paper. A lesser-known aspect of the artist.
Among Renoir’s masterpieces exhibited (1841-1919), there are obviously Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Les Parapluies, or even La Danse à Bougival. But also works rarely exhibited in France including one of the most famous: Le Déjeuner des canotiers, painted between 1880 and 1881. Its presence in France is a first in twenty years.
The painting is usually exhibited in the United States. “It’s really an extraordinary gift that we’re given“, confides Paul Perrin, the exhibition’s curator and director of collections at the Musée d’Orsay. “This painting is a tour de force in terms of composition, light, colors. Nobody, before Renoir, had dared to tackle a subject as banal in such a large painting measuring almost 1.80 meters in length. This makes it a truly modern manifesto. And Renoir really puts all his expertise into it“, he adds in front of the masterpiece exhibited in Paris for the next four months.
To enrich this exhibition, the Parisian museum also received contributions from artists worldwide. “Frankfurt, Madrid or London in Europe, and then in the United States, we have works coming from Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles“, Paul Perrin lists, delighted to exhibit unpublished paintings in France. Also an opportunity to introduce visitors to Renoir’s entire body of work, known as “the painter of happiness.” “His happy, optimistic, positive vision is somewhat contrary to the art of the 19th century“, explains Paul Perrin. A life view that sets Renoir apart from other artists of his time.
In total, over a hundred pieces of Renoir’s work are on display at the Musée d’Orsay.
