Renoir - Revered and Reviled

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known and loved for his impressionist paintings of Paris, which count among the world’s favorites. Renoir, however, grew tired of this style and changed course. This stunning film – based on the remarkable collection of 181 Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia – examines the direction he then took and why it provokes such extreme reactions even today. Some claim they are repulsed by Renoir’s later works and some claim they are seduced. What may surprise many is that among the many artists who sought Renoir’s new works out and were clearly highly influenced by them were the two giants of the 20th century – Picasso and Matisse. The film is a fresh new biography of this artistic giant but more than that it uncovers a rarely told story that places Renoir as a critical link between the old and the new.

Edited by Clive Mattock
Music Composed by Stephen Baysted

KEY WORKS DISCUSSED:

• Children on the Seashore, Guernsey, 1883
• Washerwoman and Child, 1886
• The Artist’s Family, 1896
• Nude in a Landscape, c. 1917
• Composition, Five Bathers, c. 1918

FACTS & TRIVIA

• In 1922, Albert Barnes established the Barnes
Foundation for the purpose of promoting the
advancement of education and the appreciation of
the fine arts.

• The Barnes Foundation holds one of the finest
collections of post-impressionist and early
modern paintings, with extensive works by Pierre
Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and
Pablo Picasso to name a few.

• Renoir began his artistic career at a very young
age, painting designs on fine china at a porcelain
factory. He continued to paint, despite having
arthritis, up until his death.