"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" - Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The Impressionism, a movement, first in painting and later in music, that developed chiefly in France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Impressionist painting comprises the work produced between about 1867-1886 by a group of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques.
The most conspicuous characteristic of Impressionism in painting was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and colour.
In music, it was to convey an idea or affect through a wash of sound rather than a strict formal structure.
The impressionist art movement originated in France in the last quarter of the 19th century as a reaction against traditional art and its strict rules.
A group of painters who became known as the Impressionists decided to gain independence from the standards prescribed by the French Academy of Fine Arts and France's annual official art exhibition called The Salon.
Impressionism covers approximately two decades, from the late 1860s through the 1880s.
The term impressionist was first used by French art critic Louis Leroy in 1874 based on Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise.
Leroy found the term fitting to describe the loose, undefined and "unfinished" style that Monet and several other artists applied to their paintings.
Renoir was born in 1841 in Limoges, France, but moved to Paris with his family when he was 13.
His first paintings were flowers on China, as part of his work in a local porcelain factory.
In 1860 he studied under Charles Gleyre where he met Alfred Sisley, Frederic Bazille and Claude Monet, fellow student.
He studied at the Louvre and then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
In the 1870's Renoir's Impressionist technique reached its peak, with glorious paintings such as Lunch at the Resturant Fournaise The Rowers’ Lunch, Dance in the Country, Dance at Bougival, and Gabrielle and Jean.
The SwingTwo of Pierre Auguste Renoir's most famous from that period were The Swing and Bal at the Moulin de la Galette, a wonderful composition of many of his friends and Montmartre girls.
His fully defined technique rendered facial expressions and movements masterfully.
Renoir often used his friends and acquaintances such as fellow artists and writers.
He spent weeks and sometimes months perfecting his paintings.
He painted his new bride and several of their friends in Luncheon of the Boating Party, a masterpiece on which he spent many months.
Beginning in the 1880's Renoir became more interested in classical art and female figures. The Bathers, a series of paintings female figures, were completed in 1887.
They depicted feminine grace superbly, with an excellent portrayal of pearly textured and soft female skin.
Other beautiful paintings for which Pierre Auguste Renoir is acclaimed are Young Girls at the Piano, The Garden at Fontenay 1874, The Rose Garden at Wargemont 1879, and The Engaged Couple.
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