Do you think you may own a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir? If so, we can authenticate, appraise, research, issue certificates of authenticity (COA), and provide consultation for all paintings by this artist.

Loved by the general public, Renoir is largely considered by art critics to have been a technically struggling artist. Some consider him to be a painter of very limited capability, and extremely weak in his abilities and execution. Nonetheless, his timelessness and general popularity prove that perhaps Renoir had something intangible that his critics couldn’t pinpoint that made him a success in art history.

If nothing else, considering that he did produce some great and inspired paintings, he was most uneven in the quality of his production. Like many artists, he had his bad days, and out of his entire catalogue, perhaps only a third are truly masterworks. This doesn’t go with saying, because Renoir was truly innovative in his techniques, any and all of his works are treasured.

Indeed he did not paint quickly or with ease, even though he is said to have managed to sketch Wagner, the great composer, in 35 minutes when they met in Palermo in January 1882.

It took him 3 years to complete his Great Bathers and an enormous number of false starts.

 

He was seemingly well aware of his limitations and that perhaps it was his hasty techniques that produced lower quality compositions.

In 1865 he destroyed the very first painting he had managed to show in the much coveted Paris Salon the year before: Esmeralda Dancing with her Goat around a Fire Illuminating the Entire Crowd of Vagabonds.

Later, he went on to destroy practically everything he had painted up to 1866.

In 1881 he writes to his dealer, Durand-Ruel: "I am not satisfied and I erase, I erase again..."

In 1889 he refused to exhibit at the Exposition Universelle, declaring: "I find everything I do to be bad".

In early 1862, shortly after joining the Swiss Art Academy in Paris, he was asked by the teacher, Monsieur Gleyre: "Is it to amuse yourself that you paint?". It is known that he was largely ignored and left in contempt by the art teacher, due the low quality of his work.

Renoir had trouble painting, or at least painting well.

We know from his son that he would constantly destroy drawings and paintings, that he would restart countless times on the same composition he had in mind.

In his career, he painted porcelain vases and decorated fans and awnings. Then he copied the masters of the 1700's in the Louvre. He moved on to impressionism in 1873 and abandoned it by 1883 when a trip to Italy spurred him to try to paint like an Italian Old Master, which he tried for 7 or 8 years. Finally, he settled on his late style which was different again.

One could say that all his life Renoir struggled to find a style in which he would paint well. Ultimately, through his constant failures he created a style of his own that would be emulated by others for decades to come.

Unfortunately, Renoir is generally considered by critics to be the worst painter to have made it really big, having sold 2 paintings for over 70 million dollars and countless others for over a million.

It is also interesting to consider, while his name is so intimately connected to impressionism, that he was in it for only 10 of his 60 year career as a painter.

By the same token, one must recognize that most of his best paintings were produced during his impressionist period. Naturally this raises an interesting question. Is it easier to paint in the impressionist style? Is it easier to appear to have a great command of painting if one paints in this blurry style? Or did Renoir just create what was to become a very popular style out of his commercial failures?

When looking at the 4,000 pictures Renoir left behind, and then specifically at those executed in the impressionist style, one is tempted to conclude that this painting method is very forgiving, albeit truly innovative.

The vast majority of Renoir's paintings are very sweet and happy. No difficult passage of life is ever shown. One dances and dines. Flirts. Goes to the concert, plays the piano, spends a beautiful summer afternoon rowing in quiet waters. The gardens are in bloom and the children well dressed and healthy. Most women are in their prime and absentmindedly undress to play in the water. Life is worry free and all the moments are happy in Renoir's universe. This rosy vision is certainly responsible for his popularity.

The most outstanding aspect of Renoir's oeuvre is his portraiture style of women. Even though Renoir was not the most gifted portraitist, his style is always consistent, rich and soft. Though Realistic and Impressionistic in nature, none of his portraits seem to bear a harsh lighting, or depict his subjects in anything but a glowing, supple nature.

One may try to attribute the softness of his subjects to their sometimes ample size and leisurely lifestyles, but this is not so. Renoir achieved this soft look through mixing colors, languid posing and by integrating them into their background. This unity of subject and background creates an aesthetically pleasing look, and is perhaps one of the reasons that Renoir's work is so well loved.

This series of Renoir's female portraits not only outlines the artist’s increasing talent and shifting styles throughout the years, but also shows the similarities between subjects. Note the poses, expressions and lighting of each subject and how similar they all are. Many have the expression, features, complexion or mood. Through his fine color palate and delicate brushstrokes, Renoir left us with a fine collection of portraits and a simple way to decipher his style.

There is no doubt that a substantial number of authentic but unrecognized or rejected Renoir paintings and sketches are floating around.

The issue is that so many of his works are of horrible quality, that they are rejected today by those who only have his masterpieces in mind. This is certainly an unfortunate case, but one should not completely discredit a Renoir altogether. One needs to look at the entire production of Renoir and at his many different periods and painting styles before rejecting anything.

The market has decided to pay dearly for anything by Pierre-Auguste, so one may as well follow popular wisdom and take advantage of it. Even if some consider him to be a failure, Renoir was indeed one of the greatest painters to emerge from 19th century France.

 

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