Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on February 25, 1841, in Limoges, France, the son of a tailor. The family moved to Paris when Renoir was four, and by his early teens he was employed as a porcelain painter, a craft that honed his sensitivity to colour and decorative grace. He entered the studio of Charles Gleyre in 1861, where he met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille — future companions in the founding of Impressionism. Renoir participated in the landmark first Impressionist exhibition of 1874 and became one of the movement's most beloved figures, celebrated above all for canvases suffused with warmth, light, and the pleasures of Parisian social life.\n\nUnlike many of his Impressionist contemporaries, Renoir was drawn throughout his career to the human figure — particularly women and children — rendered with a sensuous, loose brushwork and a palette of blush pinks, golds, and vibrant blues. Works such as Luncheon of the Boating Party and Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette remain among the most widely reproduced paintings in the Western canon. In later life, severe rheumatoid arthritis confined him to a wheelchair at his estate in Cagnes-sur-Mer, yet he continued to paint until the very end, reportedly with brushes strapped to his twisted hands. He died on December 3, 1919.