Pierre-Auguste Renoir and “The luncheon of the boating party” (Essay Sample)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir and “The luncheon of the boating party”
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir was considered one of the creative and greatest proponents of French impression. He painted more than 6,000 oil paintings of flowers, women, children, and fields. Kemp (2000) explains that Renoir collaborated with other impressionists like Claude Monet to practice plein air painting including the capture of light and its effects on nature. He liked using heavy impasto and dark color. While he worked with Monet, Renoir gradually mastered the art of painting the shimmering color as well as flickering light of outdoor scenes and consequently he became one of the best painters of depicting light and color images in the history of art. His impressionist exhibitions depicted sense of color and superb touch. Some of his best paintings are such as the “luncheon of the boating party,” “the box at the opera” and others.
Renoir was born in Limoges from a poor family background. His father (who was a tailor) moved to Paris when Renoir was three. Renoir showed talent in drawing, and this influenced his parent to apprentice him to a porcelain painter during 1854. He served as an apprentice for four years while he attended evening class for decorate art course in a nearby art school. Then his brother, who engraved medals, hired him to decorate fans with gallant pictures and paints awnings and blinds. He was able to save money and therefore dedicated whole time to study fine art painting. In 1864, Renoir was accepted at the Paris Salon, but later he ruined the paintings because his work was too academic and somber (Facos, 2011). Although, the Paris Salon rejected him in 1866, his painting portrait had good effect.
It was impressionism that made Renoir became focused and abandoned other influences. He became interested in the study of reflections on water and soon started adding small accents of color to replace the drawing (Katz and Dars, 2000). He continued using this technique in painting regattas including various landscapes. He also used impressionist principles in human form. Though, some of his paintings were rejected at the Paris Salon, some became successful, which were shown at the first Impressionist Exhibition.
Renoir’s career development quickened and during 1876 he used his impressionist skills to practice portrait art, and he became successful and eventually showed15 paintings at the second impressionist exhibition during 1876 (Gardner and Kleiner, 2014). Renoir was so fortune during that year and, as a result, he rented studio in Montmartre where he created some of his great artworks, which were shown at the third impressionist exhibition. Through these artworks, he remained focused at capturing the effect of light filtering through trees onto figures in the shade. He took several commissions and also worked for decorative portraits and arts as a way of earning living. Some of these works were shown both at the fourth Impressionist Exhibition and the Paris Salon in 1879, and consequently he was widely accepted as an innovative portraitist. He continued producing several brilliant paintings and in 1880, he decided not to take part in the fifth impressionist exhibition because he had other commitments and other commissions. After hard work and dedication, Renoir decided to journey to Alger in 1881 to have a rest. Upon his returning to Paris, Renoir came with many portraits of Algeria women and brilliantly colored landscape paintings.
“The luncheon of the boating party” illustrates an excellent impressionist work of Renoir, who applied setting, color and costume to express the happiness of a sunny afternoon among his close friends. Renoir used a golden glow pellets; for example, women’s complexion skin glows in the warmth of the sun. The bare arms and straw hats of certain individuals of the party depict the rising heat. House (2004) presents that Renoir prepared the party at an establishment where he knew; he set the party at the upper balcony of the Restaurant Fournaise in Chatou, France. He depicted his close friends including his wife (who is in the left-hand corner) among the party members. The party members are having good conversation, enjoying good meals and drinks, and having relaxation.
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Renoir’s painting: “The luncheon of the boating party”
It appears Renoir expressed his feeling for his wife (Aline Charigot) by separating her from other members and creates her more conspicuous. He designs the status of his wife by applying brighter colors of her clothing. According to Brodskaia (2010), the set up of the party indicates an impressionist movement including the chan...