SegPlay^® PC Pattern Set Contents

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - French Impressionist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a world renown French Impressionist painter who excelled in transferring beauty and feminine sensuality to the canvas. His portraits and real life scenes are filled with sparkling color and light. Our SegPlayPC collection contains 27 patterns of Renoir's most recognized and important works including "Dance at the Mouline de la Galette", "Luncheon of the Boating Party", "On the Terrace", and "The Theater Box". There are many portraits (including a self portrait), and a few landscapes included in this set.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841 - December 3, 1919) was one the founders of French Impressionism and is considered one of the greatest artists of his day. His paintings are characterized by their shimmering colors, warm sensuality, freshness and happy-go-lucky subjects.

Renoir was born in Limoges, France, but grew up in Paris, in a happy family environment. He showed talent at an early age, so his parents placed him as an apprentice in a porcelain factory where he painted delicate flowers and profiles of Marie-Antoinette on dishware.

In 1862, Renoir began studying art formally, and it was during his studies that he met Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. The emphasis of his classes was on painting and drawing outdoors - considered revolutionary in those days - and Renoir and Monet spent a lot of time painting the river Seine. The sailing boats, regattas, and popular cafes that lined the river banks in those days became their favorite setting. They painted the play of light on water, rendered in quick brush strokes, and soon both artists were deeply involved in developing the color theories that are now considered to the basis of Impressionism.

Renoir painted some of his most famous works in the 1870s, including the Bal au Moulin de la Galette, painted in 1876. This painting embodies the spirit of Impressionism - ordinary men and women, sailors and Montmartre girls in casual poses, having a good time, dancing and drinking. They are depicted with emotion and sensuality caught, like a snapshot, in a fleeting moment of color and light.

But Renoir grew dissatisfied with the limitations of pure impressionism and was looking for new directions. In 1881 he went on a year-long visit to Algiers and Italy in search of inspiration. He never forgot his roots as a porcelain painter and, influenced by the harsh light of the Barbary Coast, his style became more classical and minimalist. His palette was reduced to only five colors.

In 1890, Renoir married Aline Charigot who had been his model for Luncheon of the Boating Party, painted in 1881. They had three children: Jean, who became a filmmaker, Pierre, who became an actor, and Claude.

By the 1890s Renoir was painting many female nudes, rendered in exotic colors and sensual flesh tones influenced by the sun-drenched south of France where he lived from 1905. By this time Renoir was crippled with arthritis and, unable to move his hands, painted with a brush tied to his wrists.

Renoir died at the age of 79. Before he died, the French government purchased his portrait of Madame Georges Charpentier, painted in 1877, and he was able to see it hanging in the Louvre.

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