One of the leading lights of the Impressionist movement, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) remains a towering figure in art history with enduring public appeal. Sun-kissed, charming, and sensual, his work shows painting at its most lighthearted and luminous, while championing the plein air and colour innovations of his time.

Renoir’s oeuvre was prolific, with some several thousand works in his lifetime. Much influenced by forerunners such as Courbet, Degas, Manet, Delacroix, he worked with contemporary peers such as Monet to explore fresh uses of colour and brushwork, rendering texture and depth with different-hued daubs. Drawn to intimate and tender human scenes, his subjects include lovers, mothers, and numerous nudes.

As his career progressed, Renoir investigated different styles and techniques, shifting away from the feathery Impressionist touch to a more robust, classical corporeality, sometimes called his “Ingres period,” and later to monumental pieces such as The Bathers. From the abundant output of his lengthy career, this essential artist introduction selects key Renoir works to explore his innovations in the art of painting, as much as his traditions in pursuit of beauty, harmony, and the female form.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's timelessly charming paintings still reflect our ideals of happiness, love, and beauty. TASCHEN's Renoir: Painter of Happiness, the most comprehensive retrospective of his work yet published, examines the personal history and motivation behind the legend. Though he began by painting landscapes in the Impressionist style, Renoir (1841-1919) found his true affinity once he started painting portraits, after which he abandoned the Impressionists altogether. Though often misunderstood and criticized, Renoir remains one of history's most well-loved painters — undoubtedly because his works exude such warmth, tenderness and good cheer.

In an incisive text tracing the artist's career and stylistic evolution, Gilles Néret shows how Renoir reinvented the female form in painting, with his everyday goddesses and their plump forms, rounded hips and breasts. This last phase in Renoir's work, in which he returned to the simple pleasure of painting the female nude in his baigneuses series, was his most innovative and stylistically influential, and an inspiration to both Matisse and Picasso.

With a complete chronology, bibliography, index of works, and 600 sumptuous, large-format colour reproductions, as well as photos and sketches illustrating Renoir's life and work, here is the essential work of reference on this enduring master artist.

The definitive monograph on one of the world's best-loved artists, sumptuously illustrated in full color.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) stands out among the great artists for his willingness to paint pictures that are straightforwardly pretty and charming: he chooses familiar and sympathetic human types as his subjects, and depicts them with an appealing immediacy, using an attractively bright and rosy palette. Not all of his four thousand or so paintings are equally good; some fall short on formal grounds, and others, not surprisingly, sink into sentimentality. But Renoir's best works are masterpieces, perhaps the most joyous and effervescent ones in the history of art - his great monuments to leisure, Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party; his delicate portraits of women and children, like the winsome Girl with a Watering Can; and his many frankly sensual nudes.

In this highly readable monograph, noted art historian Anne Distel offers an illuminating new account of the life of the man who created such singularly sparkling works. The author deftly narrates Renoir’s rise from apprentice porcelain painter to celebrated artist, quoting judiciously from the painter’s own vivid letters and offering keen analyses of his style at each stage of his sixty-year career. And Distel does not consider that career in isolation, but uses the latest discoveries in the documentary evidence - some of them her own - to re-create the artistic and social milieus in which Renoir worked. She traces his relationships with other artists, both his fellow Impressionists and older contemporaries like Corot and Daubigny as well as the younger Bonnard, Matisse, and Picasso; with writers like Zola, Mallarmé, and Mirbeau; and, in particular, with the dealers and patrons who were so important to his career, like Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, the Bernheim brothers, the Charpentiers, the Berards, Charles Ephrussi, and Dr. Barnes.

Distel's authoritative text is illustrated throughout with some three hundred beautiful color reproductions of the artist’s finest and most representative works, ensuring that this will be the Renoir monograph of reference for years to come.

About the Author:

Anne Distel, is the conservateur général honoraire du patrimoine at the Musée d'Orsay and author of numerous books on 19th century painting . She is also a professor of art history at the University of Paris Sorbonne-Paris and an impressionist painting specialist.

La Vie en Rose. The most comprehensive retrospective of Renoir’s work

Often misunderstood, Pierre-Auguste Renoir remains one of history’s most-loved painters — undoubtedly because his work exudes such warmth, tenderness, and good cheer. Gathering brilliant reproductions and sketches, as well as photos and a complete chronology illustrating his life and work, this is the essential work of reference on Renoir.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s (1841–1919) timelessly charming paintings still reflect our ideals of happiness, love, and beauty. Derived from our large-format volume, the most comprehensive retrospective of his work published to date, this compact edition examines the personal history and motivation behind the legend. Though he began by painting landscapes in the Impressionist style, Renoir found his true affinity in portraits, after which he abandoned the Impressionists altogether. Though often misunderstood, Renoir remains one of history’s most well-loved painters — undoubtedly because his works exude such warmth, tenderness, and good spirit.

In an incisive text tracing the artist’s career and stylistic evolution, Gilles Néret shows how Renoir reinvented the painted female form, with his everyday goddesses and their plump forms, rounded hips and breasts. Renoir’s later phase, marked by his return to the simple pleasure of the female nude in his baigneuses series, was his most innovative and stylistically influential, and would inspire such masters as Matisse and Picasso.

With a complete chronology, bibliography, photos, sketches, and brilliant reproductions, this is the essential work of reference on this enduring master artist.

The author:

Gilles Néret (1933–2005) was an art historian, journalist, writer, and museum correspondent. He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU Museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L'Œil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Élie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. His TASCHEN titles include Salvador Dalí: The Paintings, Matisse, and Erotica Universalis.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

La belle vie

Impressionism's most joyful paintings

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is now universally acclaimed: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. Renoir never wanted anything ugly in his paintings, nor any dramatic action. "I like pictures which make me want to wander through them when it’s a landscape," he said, "or pass my hand over breast or back if it’s a woman."

Renoir’s entire oeuvre is dominated by the depiction of women. Again and again he painted "these faunesses with their pouting lips" (Mallarmé) and invented a new image of feminity.

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art Series features:

• a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
• a concise biography
• approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

The author:
Peter H. Feist studied art history, history and archaeology in Halle, where he was assistant lecturer from 1952-1958, receiving his doctorate in 1958. From 1958-1981 he worked at the Humboldt University, Berlin, from 1982-1990 he was the director of the Institute for Aesthetics and Art Studies of the GDR Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. Feist has published numerous books on the history and theory of art, including TASCHEN's Pierre-Auguste Renoir and, as co-author, Impressionism. He lives and works in Berlin.

Посмотреть русскоязычное издание книги Renoir - Ренуар

La belle vie

Impressionism’s most joyful paintings

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is universally acclaimed and celebrated: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. Renoir never wanted anything ugly in his paintings, nor any dramatic action. “I like pictures which make me want to wander through them when it’s a landscape,” he said, “or pass my hand over breast or back if it’s a woman.” Renoir’s entire oeuvre is dominated by the depiction of women - again and again he painted “these faunesses with their pouting lips” (Mallarmé) and invented a new image of feminine beauty and sensuality. A prolific painter - he made several thousand works in his lifetime - he is perhaps the most beloved of the Impressionists.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
* approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
* a concise biography

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) is so closely associated with Impressionist painting that the surprising diversity of his early work is frequently forgotten. His most important model during these early years was the artist’s mistress, Lise Tréhot, with whom he had a relationship between 1865 and 1872. After posing for a large group of prominent early works, including Woman in a Garden and En été (both 1868), Lise turned her back on the Bohemian lifestyle in favor of a bourgeois marriage. The paintings created between 1864 and the end of the following decade show the broad spectrum of Renoir’s art and the development of his artistic vocabulary, including the Impressionist phase. This is the first extensive examination of the painter’s early oeuvre and the strong influence of his close friendships with other artists, such as Éd0uard Manet, Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) is so heavily associated with Impressionist painting that his last creative period has frequently been ignored. This publication devotes itself to precisely these last three creative and innovative decades, in which Renoir abandoned Impressionism.

He dedicated himself during this period to cheerful subjects such as bathers, domestic idylls, and landscapes that were influenced by both classical mythology and his move to the south ofFrance. His fluid brushstrokes and masterful use of color were much admired by the up-and-coming modernist avant-garde.

More than three hundred color illustrations graphically demonstrate the influence Renoir had on younger artists such as Bonnard, Matisse, and Picasso, as well as the ways they examined his work.

В произведениях Огюста Ренуара искусство предстает перед нами в своем наиболее праздничном, напоенном светом облике, исполненном здоровья и жажды жизни. Это самое полное издание о творчестве мастера. Оно включает около 300 великолепных репродукций живописи, графики и скульптуры. Художник основал свой тип женственности: его купальщицы словно сошли с Олимпа, а свою служанку Габриэль он сумел преобразить в богиню, которую увидел в ее облике.

«Мне известно, как непросто убедить людей, что живопись, доставляющая наслаждение, также может быть великой», – говорил Ренуар. Он не только сумел прожить в любви и счастье свою жизнь, но и передал это ощущение счастья и праздничности на своих полотнах.
Альбом содержит хронологию, избранную библиографию, алфавитный указатель работ, подготовительные наброски, фотографии и документы, иллюстрирующие этапы жизни и творчества художника, что делает альбом не просто подарочным изданием, а серьезным справочником о жизни и творчестве мастера.

Jean Renoir (1894-1979) was, like his father Auguste, a virtuoso in his field. From early films such as La Fille de l`Eau and La Chienne through later masterpieces like Rules of the Game and The Grand Illusion (widely considered to be two of the greatest films ever made), Renoir forged a reputation as France`s most important filmmaker. Highly prolific (he directed over 40 films), Renoir worked in a multitude of genres, though social realism was his most powerful mode of expression.

Книга о французском художнике импрессионисте Огюсте Ренуаре (1841–1919).

Среди огромного количества полотен французских художников XIX века зрители безошибочно узнают полотна Ренуара, передающие ощущение праздничности и счастья, которое не присуще никому из его предшественников. Искусство как нечто возвышающее, как пиршество для глаз – именно так мы можем описать и величие, и некоторую ограниченность его творчества. Ренуар творил в течение почти шестидесяти лет, за которые создал около шести тысяч картин. Прекрасные произведения Ренуара раскупались современниками гораздо быстрее, чем картины его друзей-импрессионистов. Лучшие из его картин и сейчас продаются за очень большие деньги.

Ренуар дожил до глубокой старости и был уже при жизни очень популярен. В конце жизни от занимался также скульптурой. В творчестве Ренуара излюбленным сюжетом стала обнаженная женская натура. Он никогда не писал обнаженными мужчин. Его искусство никогда не обижало и не унижало человека. Художник любил людей, свет и вечную неизменную природу. Его полотна несут людям радость, счастье и гармонию.

Издание состоит из семи глав, рассказывающих о жизни художника и об истории создания каждой картины, представленной в издании. В конце книги приводится хронология жизни и творчества мастера, проиллюстрированная документальными фотографиями.

Посмотреть англоязычное издание книги Ренуар - Renoir