Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist and the pioneer of the Impressionistic style of painting. Renoir was renowned for glorification of feminine sensuality and admiration of womanly elegance. Along with Claude Monet, he gave birth to a new form of painting which emphasized on precise portraits of landscapes with gradual passage of time, with thin but perceptible brush strokes. Renoir’s collection comprised of variety of interactive, nudes and close-ups. His notable works include Bal du moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party. Bal du moulin de la Galette was auctioned at a record price of $78.1 million at Sotheby's New York. Catalogue raisonné, a five-volume collection of Renoir’s work, was released during the fag-end of the 21st century. La Vie et l'Œuvre de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, an account of life and works of Renoir, was released by Ambroise Vollard in 1919. We have collected some of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s notable quotes from his observations and life. Let us go through these quotes from this extraordinary artist from the 19th century.
To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.
Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
One morning, one of us ran out of the black, it was the birth of Impressionism.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all happiness.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.
The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.
If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a model, your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves; but Nature offers you millions, all on the same tree. No two leaves are exactly the same. The artist who paints only what is in his mind must very soon repeat himself.
Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character.
About 1883 something like a break occurred in my work. I had reached the end of 'impressionism,' and I had come to realize that I did not know how to paint or draw.
You haven't time to think about the composition. In working directly from nature, the painter ends up by simply aiming at an effect, and not composing the picture at all; and he soon becomes monotonous.
If the painter works directly from nature, he ultimately looks for nothing but momentary effects; he does not try to compose, and soon he gets monotonous.
There are two indices of genuine art: it is inimitable and it is ineffable.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Out-of-doors there is a greater variety of light than in the studio, where the light is always the same. But that is just the trouble; one is carried away by the light, and besides, one can't see what one is doing.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
I have a horror of the word 'flesh', which has become so shopworn.Why not 'meat'whilethey're about it? What I like is skin, a young girl's skin that is pink and shows that she has a good circulation.
On the whole, the modern palette is the same as the one used by the artists of Pompeii... I mean it has not been enriched. The ancients used earths, ochres, and ivory-black - you can do anything with that palette.
If the professional schools should succeed in producing skilled workers trained in the technique of their craft, nothing could be done with them if they had no ideal.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
The simplest subjects are the immortal ones.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
An artist must eat sparingly and give up a normal way of life.
It is impossible to repeat in one period what was done in another.The pointof view isnotthesame, anymorethan are the tools, the ideals, the needs, or the painters' techniques.
To express himself well, the artist should be hidden... The trouble is that if an artist knows he has genius, he's done for. The only salvation is to work like a labourer, and not have delusions of grandeur.
The modern architect is, generally speaking, art's greatest enemy.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
What is to be done about these literary people, who will never understand that painting is a craft and that the material side comes first? The ideas come afterwards, when the picture is finished.
What I like so much about Corot is that he can say everything with a bit of tree; and it was Corot himself that I found in the museum of Naples - in the simplicity of the work of Pompeii and the Egyptians. These priestesses in their silver-grey tunics are just like Corot's nymphs.
A fat lot of good it would do if I told you that Titian's courtesans make you want to caress them. Some day you'll see the Titians for yourself, and if they have no effect on you, then you don't understand the first thing about painting. And I wouldn't be able to help you.
The so-called 'discoveries' of the Impressionists could not have been unknown to the old masters; and if they made no use of them, it was because all great artists have renounced the use of effects. And in simplifying nature, they made it all the greater.
Pierre Auguste Renoir
I have arrived more definitely than any other painter during his lifetime; honours shower upon me from every side; artists pay me compliments on my work; there are many people to whom my position must seem enviable ... But I don't seem to have a single real friend!
