1841-1919. French Impressionist painter. He
met Monet and Sisley in the early 1860s, and
together they formed the nucleus of the
Impressionist movement. He developed a
lively, colourful painting style with
feathery brushwork and painted many
voluptuous female nudes, such as The Bathers
about 1884-87 (Philadelphia Museum of Art,
USA). In his later years he turned to
sculpture. Born in Limoges, Renoir trained as
a porcelain painter. He joined an academic
studio 1861, and the first strong influences
on his style were the Rococo artists Boucher
and Watteau and the Realist Courbet. In the
late 1860s Impressionism made its impact and
Renoir began to work outdoors. Painting with
Monet, he produced many pictures of people at
leisure by the river Seine. From 1879 he made
several journeys abroad, to N Africa, the
Channel Islands, Italy, and later to Britain,
the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany. After
his Italian visit of 1881 he moved towards a
more Classical structure in his work, notably
in Les Parapluies/Umbrellas about 1881-84
(National Gallery, London). In 1906 he
settled in the south of France. Many of his
sculptures are monumental female nudes not
unlike those of Maillol.