Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Biography

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) emerged from craft training into the avant-garde circle around Monet, Sisley, and Bazille, helping to found Impressionism. In the mid‑1870s he focused on outdoor scenes of modern leisure in and around Montmartre, using dappled light and high-chroma color to capture transient sensations [1][2][5].

Themes in Their Work

The modern lens: urban life & speedLasting vs. fleeting (ephemerality)Gardens & controlled natureThe gaze & being looked atGender as performanceSexuality & desireEveryday life as artSelf-fashioning & personaCourtship & marriage as contract

Featured Artworks

The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Swing

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)

Renoir’s The Swing fixes a fleeting, sun-dappled exchange in a Montmartre garden, where a woman in a white dress with blue bows steadies herself on a swing while a man in a blue jacket addresses her. The scene crystallizes <strong>modern leisure</strong>, <strong>flirtation</strong>, and <strong>optical shimmer</strong>, as broken strokes scatter light over faces, fabric, and ground <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[4]</sup>.