Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919) was a French painter originally associated with the Impressionist movement. His early works were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, linear, classical, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women. Renoir’s works are easily identifiable by their use of bright colours, light-hearted subjects, and bold lines. His technique of broken brush strokes was combined with brash colours to portray the light and movement of the subject. He used oil as his medium, focusing on figures, landscapes, and scenery.