PIERRE RENOIR, biography quotes on life and painting in French Impressionism
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) with biograhpy facts by his artist quotes on painting art and life. Renoir was a colorful French painter in French Impressionism and painted frequently with Monet in open air. Later Renoir developed a style of painting, more based on classical painting and with a stronger emphasis on form. Some famous paintings are ‘Grenouillère’ and ‘Moulin de la galette’. Flowers and women portraits were his favorite subjects, but he also loved to paint flower still-life and landscapes. Renoir was close painter-friends with Monet; they frequently painted landscape together in open air. At the bottom more biography and life facts on Renoir and his Impressionism style & art links for the artist. – the editor.
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Renoir: ‘Two sisters’, oil painting 1895 |
Pierre Auguste Renoir, his artist quotes & statements on painting and life by the painter in French Impressionism
– He (the painter Corot, fh) was always surrounded by a crowd of fools and I didn’t want to get caught up in it. I admired him from a distance.
* source, famous French artists quotes: “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 12. ( famous French colorful painter Pierre Auguste Renoir, creating in Paris’ Impressionism)
– It (the Isle Grenouillere, he painted in 1869, together with Monet, fh) was a perpetual holiday – and what an assortment of people. You could still enjoy yourself in those days! Machinery didn’t take up the whole of life; there was time for living, and we made the most of it… …I found as many magnificent girls to paint as I wanted; in those days one wasn’t reduced to following a little model around for an hour and then being treated as a disgusting old man at the end of it.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 28.
– People will keep on taking them (Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, fh) for theorists, when all they wanted was to paint in gay, bright colours, like the old masters.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 64.
– They’ve found fault with me enough, in all conscience, for putting violet shadows on bodies.
* source,famous French people life quotes: a remark to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 80.
– Alas I shall very probably not be able to dine with you (madame Charpentier who frequently had receptions in Paris which he visited, fh). I began a portrait this morning; I begin another this evening, and it is extremely likely that I shall have a third to do afterwards. If I have to stay for dinner, and begin tomorrow, all these people will go away, and my head is in a complete muddle with them.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to madame Charpentier around 1876, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 80.
– There are scarcely fifteen art- collectors in Paris capable of liking a painter without the backing of the Salon. There are eighty thousand of them who wouldn’t buy a thing from a painter who is not in the Salon. I am not going to be so foolish as to condemn a thing just because of where it happens to be. In short, I’m not going to waste my time bearing a grudge against the Salon (which refused in the past to show his paintings as well as other impressionists, fh) – I don’t even want to look as if I do. To my mind, one must simply paint as well as one possibly can – and that’s all.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, March 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 127-128.
– If I was accused of neglecting my art, or sacrificing my ideas for the sake of stupid ambition, then I would understand the critics; but as that isn’t the case, there is nothing to be said. I sent a picture to the Salon for purely commercial reasons. Anyway, it is like some medicines – even if it does no good, it does no harm. (other impressionist refused to send in their work any longer, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to art-dealer Durand-Ruel, March 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 128.
– I can manage very well with the first grubby backside (of the model) which comes along – provided I find a skin which takes the light well.
* source, famous French people life quotes: Vollards book, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 150.
– (recalling the model Jeanne Samary, fh) What a charming girl! And what a skin! She positively radiated light around her.
* source, famous French people life quotes: Vollard’s book, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 150.
– One day, while I was painting a landscape in the neighbourhood of Algiers (in March 1881, fh), I saw a man approaching who seemed to be dressed un purple and cloth-of-gold…. He looked like some magnificent prince… …When the traveller reached me. My illusion vanished; my emir was nothing but a flea-bitten beggar. The sun, the divine sun had enriched him with its light… …It’s always the same in Algeria. The magic of the sun transmutes the palm-trees into gold, the water seems full of diamonds and men become the Kings from the East.
* source, famous French people life quotes: “Renoir et ses amis” Georges Riviere, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 156/157.
– I’m struggling with flowering trees (in spring 1881, shortly after his Algeria trip, fh) and with women and children. I keep feeling regretful, all the same – I think of all the trouble I have given you for nothing, and I wonder how long you will put up with my womanish whims; and through all I keep seeing those pretty English girls (Duret invited him to visit England, fh). What a misfortune, always to be so undecided! But it’s at the root of my character, and I’m too old to change.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Theodore Duret, March 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 156/157.
-… I have suddenly become a traveller, and I am afflicted with a fever for seeing Raphaels. So I am in the process of swallowing up Italy. Now, I will be able to say straight out: ‘Yes, sir. I have seen some Raphaels, I have seen Venice the Fair, etc.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to madame Charpentier, Autumn 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 159.
– Shall I tell you what I have seen in Venice? Right – here goes. Take a boat along the Seine to the Quai des Orfevres, or opposite the Tuileries (in Paris, fh) and you will see Venice. For the Museums, go to the Louvre, For Veronese, go to the Louvre,- but not for Tiepolo, whom I didn’t know; only it is a bit dear at the price. No – that isn’t true; it is very, very beautiful, when the weather is fine. The lagoon and San Marco – splendid; the Doges’ palace, splendid. As for the rest, I’d rather have Saint German l’Auxerrois.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to madame Charpentier, Autumn 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 159-160.
– How wonderful the Doges’ palace is! That pink and white marble must have been a bit cold at first, but it was magical for me, seeing it gilded by several centuries of sunlight! And the basilica of San Marco! That was what converted me from those cold Italian Renaissance churches… …as soon as one goes into San Marco one feels one is in a real place of worship – that gentle filtered light and those magnificent mosaics and the great Byzantine Christ with the grey aureole! If one hasn’t been in San Marco it is impossible to imagine the beauty of heavy pillars and columns without any moulding!
* source, famous French people life quotes: remarks to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 161-162.
– I am still going through an experimental stage. I’m not happy, and I keep scrubbing out and scrubbing out again. I hope this mania will pass… …I’m like the children at school; the clean page has to be filled with good writing, and splash – a mess! I’m still making messes and I’m forty years old.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, 21st November 1881, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 169.
– The trouble with Italy is, that it’s too beautiful. Why bother to paint, when there’s so much pleasure to be had from looking around you?… …To resist such beauty and not be consumed by it you’ve really got to know what you’re doing.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, 21st November 1881, as quoted in ‘’The private lives of the Impressionists’’ Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 226
– I studied a good deal in the museum at Naples; the Pompeian paintings are extremely interesting from every aspect. So I am staying in the sun – not to paint portraits but while I am warming myself and looking hard at things I hope I will have acquired some of the grandeur ans simplicity of the old masters. Raphael didn’t work out-of-doors, but he studied the sunlight all the same – his frescoes are full of it. So, by looking around outside, I have finished by seeing only the broad harmonies, and am no longer preoccupied with the little details, which only extinguish the sunlight, instead of increasing its brilliance. I hope therefore, when I get back to Paris, to produce something which will be the outcome of all these general studies, and to give you the benefit of them (a letter written during his three-weeks-stay, working with Cézanne at l’Estaque near Marseille in January 1882, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to madame Charpentier, l’Estaque, January 1882; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 169.
– Out-of-doors there is a greater variety of light than in the studio, where the light is always the same. But that is just the trouble; one is carried away by the light, and besides, one can’t see what one is doing (referring to two of his landscapes painted in the open air, having a different aspect in studio light, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: remarks to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 176.
– I went to see this picture (Raphael’s ‘Madonna della Sedia’ which Renoir saw in Florence in 1882, fh) just to have a good laugh – and I found myself in front of the most wonderfully free, solid, simple, alive painting it is possible to imagine – arms and legs of real flesh, and what a touching expression of maternal tenderness.< br />
* source, famous French people life quotes: remarks to Vollard, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 161-162.
– It (Raphaels’ art, fh) really is fine, and I ought to have seen it all sooner. It is full of knowledge and wisdom. He (Raphael, fh) wasn’t trying to do the impossible, like me. But it’s beautiful. I like Ingres better for oil painting. But the frescoes are admirable for simplicity and grandeur.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, 1882, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 163-164.
– What I like so much about Corot is that he can say everything with a bit of tree; and it was Corot himself that I found in the museum of Naples (in 1882,fh) – in the simplicity of the work of Pompeii and the Egyptians. These priestesses in their silver-grey tunics are just like Corot’s nymphs.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, 1882, as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 164.
– It (participating in the 7th exhibition of the Impressionists, combined with showing his work on the official Salon, fh) isn’t exactly a joy, but as I have said, it lets me out of the revolutionary side of the business, which I’m nervous of… …It’s a little weakness which I hope will be forgiven me (by the other impressionists, fh)… …Delacroix used to say, quite rightly, that a painter should win as many honours as possible.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter to Durand-Ruel, end of February 1882; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 172.
– I wanted to tell you that in about 1883 there occurred a kind of break in m work. I had got to the end of ‘Impressionism’, and I had come to the conclusion that I didn’t either how to paint or how to draw. In short, I had come to a dead end.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to Vollard, quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 175.
– You haven’t time to think about the composition. In working directly from nature, the painter ends up by simply aiming at an effect, and not composing the picture at all; and he soon becomes monotonous. (before 1881, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 176. ( famous French colorful artist Pierre Auguste Renoir, creating in Paris’ Impressionism)
– …the so-called ‘discoveries’ of the Impressionists could not have been unknown to the old masters; and if they made no use of them, it was because all great artists have renounced the use of effects. And in simplifying nature, they made it all the greater.
* source, famous French people life quotes: quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 178.
– You know how I feel painting a skin which won’t take the light well. And on top of that, it was fashionable at the time for women to be pale, so Madame de Bonnieres (which he was commissioned to portray in 1886, fh) was as pale as wax, you may be sure. I kept saying to myself ‘If only she could get a good steak inside her, just once!’… …and her hands! She put them in water before the sitting, to accentuate their whiteness… …Just imagine! I come across one of the most charming women it is possible to meet, and she doesn’t want to have any colour in her cheeks!
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to Vollard, quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 175.
– It gives my brain a rest, painting flowers. I don’t feel the same tension as when I have a model in front of me. When I paint flowers, I put on colours and try out values boldly., without worrying about wasting a canvas. I wouldn’t dare to do it with a figure; I’d be afraid of spoiling the whole thing. And the experience I gain this way is then applied to my pictures.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to George Riviere, who was watching Renoir painting a flower still-life; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 196.
– Landscapes are useful to a figure painter, too; out-of-doors one uses colours one would never think of in the weaker studio light. But landscape painting is a thankless job; you waste half a day for the sake of one hour’s painting. You only finish one painting out of ten, because the weather keeps changing. You start work on a sunlight effect and it comes on to rain – or you had a few clouds in the sky, and the wind blows them away. It’s always the same story!
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to George Riviere, who was watching Renoir painting a flower still-life; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 196.
– (Berthe Morisot) was a painter full of eighteenth-century delicacy and grace; in a word, the last elegant and ‘feminine’ artists since Fragonard.
* source, famous French people life quotes: “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 175.
– I want to give something (offering a painting to museum The Luxembourg, fh) I can’t be sure of doing again. I could do ten more nudes like that one (a large nude, suggested by Georges Riviere, fh) , whenever I liked… …This one turned out well,. I don’t think I’d be able to do that again.
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to George Riviere; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 230.
– What wonderful things (reacting on Corot’s ‘Interior of Chartres Cathedral’ and Délacroix’s ‘Interior of M. de Mornay’s house’, – he saw in 1919 from his wheelchair because of his rheumatic disease – in the reopened painting-rooms of the Louvre, fh). There isn’t a single big picture worth any more than these two little ones… …The Director (of the Louvre, fh) was so charming to me. I wish I could have thanked him properly. If you meet him, tell him how much I enjoyed my visit. If I’d presented myself at the Louvre in my wheelchair thirty years ago, they’d have shot me out fast enough! You see, one has to live a long time to see such changes. I’ve been one of the lucky ones. (in the same year, in December Renoir died, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: a remark to George Riviere; as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 237.
– Give me that palette… …those two woodcocks… …turn this one’s head to the left… …give me back my palette… …I can’t paint that beak… …Quick, some paint… …change the position of those woodcocks…(during his last illness, November 30 1919; three days later Renoir died, fh)
* source, famous French people life quotes: a letter from Félix Fénéon, published in ‘Le Bulletin des artistes’ 15th December 1919;as quoted in “Renoir – his life and work”, Francois Fosca, Book Club Associates /Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 1975, p. 175.
