Renoir: The Impressionist Who Painted Happiness, Love and Paris

Renoir was once accused by his art teacher of only painting for his own enjoyment.  Renoir replied that is he didn’t enjoy it, then he wouldn’t do it.  I think that is fair enough.  This video by the National Gallery in London was created to coincide with their exhibition of many of Renoir’s works created between 1860 and 1880 – in other words when he was experimenting with them and style and becoming one of the Innovators of Impressionism.  It tells the story of both Renoir and his adopted home city, Paris, which was itself undergoing a transformation at the time Renoir created some of the most important paintings of the 19^th  century.

Yet he never really engaged with what was going on around him in the way, say, Dickens did in literature.  His paintings are full of friends, family, lovers – and nothing of the gritty reality of urban life finds its way into his art.  This has sometimes led to finger pointing – that his need to paint happy pictures somehow makes him more frivolous than some of his contemporaries.  That may well be so, but perhaps his vision was more profound – he was fascinated by love and the way that we socialise with each other – and he wanted to capture that in his work.  He was also fascinated by food, or rather the way with which we create culture from what we eat, how we eat and with whom.  Many of his most famous works feature meals, almost all of which are over (perhaps he felt the need to fill his belly before he put paint to canvas?).  I am now blathering on – take a look at this insightful video created by the National Gallery.  It includes a section on the incomparable exquisiteness of what I think is his masterpiece of masterpieces – Dance at the Moulin de la Galette.