In love with Renoir in l'Orangerie

WALKING into the corridor on Level -1 of Musée de l’Orangerie and glancing at the first few paintings on the wall (Fig. 1, 2, 3), I was astonished and couldn’t help but say ‘wow’. I’ve never seen Renoir’s figure painting like these, so beautifully and perfectly done that I couldn’t believe my eyes. I gazed at them, tears bursting into my eyes.

Fig. 1 Portrait de deux fillettes, 1890-1892

Fig. 2 Jeunes Filles au piano, about 1892

Fig. 3 Femme à la lettre, about 1890

I had seen Renoir’s river scene, woodland, and figures in outdoor settings, but I hadn’t seen such painting of young girls occupying most of the picture space in an interior setting, with background painted in an abstract, almost unfinished way. The whole painting is so softly painted. The colour palette is so harmonious and warm. The girls’ hairs are especially beautiful, with the interplay of different colours and the darkness and light, running down so softly and looking so real. When watching closely, some locks of hair even shines under the reflection of the light, exactly like the effect we get in real life under the light. Clothes are also floating like water. All the still lives in Renoir’s painting are flowing in beauty and vibrancy.

Another fantastic aspect is Renoir’s background. Except for Young Girls at the Piano (Fig. 2) in l’Orangerie, in which the background is unfinished since the painting is the first sketch of the six versions, many of Renoir’s other paintings of female figures also have these kind of expressive, almost unfinished background, with only stripes or patches of colours, yet the real objects in the background hardly distinguishable. However, such background, to me, is indeed beautiful. Renoir seems not to have totally eliminated the representational depiction; from his patterns and stripes of colours that form the background, we could still roughly sense the silhouette and texture of the objects, figuring out that behind the figures it is probably a curtain, furniture, or the edge of a wall. However, everything in the background seems to be blurred and reduced to only colours, and only warm colours, in Renoir’s eyes. We could see that it is Renoir’s intentional design, and the colour combination of the background is really harmonious and beautiful. The special effect of the background and the colour scheme of the whole painting make me feel that Renoir is such a colourist.

The Impressionist artists were so endeavoring to capture the real moments of nature or modern life that they sometimes neglected the beauty and harmony of the picture. They sacrificed beauty for truth. Many of the early Impressionist works are just like experimentation or statement of a new technique and spirit, but the treatment of colours and forms is not always attractive and the transition between river, ground, and sky sometimes seems abrupt. The green grass and blue sky that have been frequently depicted by the Impressionists seem to be more realistic than beautiful. Monet only went back to studio to work on his painting more in order to achieve better harmony in his later career.

Renoir, with his distinct quality of brushwork - the softness - and his attention to the colour harmony, gives his paintings a special texture and harmonious quality that is different from any other Impressionists. Here, we no longer see the very realistic depiction of green grass and blue sky, but a warm setting of interior, less naturalistically painted, but beautifully done. Everything is tender, warm and pleasant. And the whole painting seems to flow slowly. The softness and warmth touch me so much and the beauty of the females and of the whole flowing palette almost melts my heart. Just like what Renoir himself has said: For me, a picture has to be an amiable, joyous and pretty thing. Yes, there’re enough bothersome things in life without us making more. I noticed it’s difficult to persuade people that a painting can be great painting and still be joyous. Renoir’s beauty is warm, sweet and joyous, but looking at it more, it is almost sensuous and dreamlike. 

INTERESTINGLY, Renoir’s still life painting attracted me even more unexpectedly (Fig. 5). I had rarely seen Renoir’s still life paintings, and I had always been less keen on still life paintings which look so naturalistic and all the same. However, Renoir’s still lives are so attractive to me. I was surprised that Renoir’s special way of painting suits still life so well. His soft, flowing brushworks render the flowers a sensuous effect. His warm and harmonious colour scheme brings the same warmth, vibrancy and beauty to the plants as to his figures, and with the floral subject, the painting becomes even more decorative. And the curving, flowing brushstrokes give them vitality, not in Van Gogh’s struggling way, but in Renoir’s tender and warm way. Renoir himself also enjoyed still life painting in the way that he did not bring the same tension of mind to them that he did to the models, so that he could boldly tried out values when painting flowers. Still life is no longer simply a similarly naturalistic representation, but has in Renoir’s hand become real beauty and art, with vitality and spontaneity. 

The wonderful thing about Renoir is that his unique way of painting fit almost all subject matters: landscape, figure, interior, still life, etc. and with his talented balance of the main subject and the background, treatment of colour and brushwork, his unique style of painting and distinct effect of brushwork never seem excessive or unharmonious.

Fig. 5 Bouquet de tulipes, about 1905-1910 

RENOIR’S care about harmony and beauty of art, not just truth, may also come from his reverence for Old Masters and his focus on technical proficiency. He had said something that I feel strongly agree and that also could refer to the situation of the contemporary art now. ‘In fact, we know nothing. We’re sure of nothing. But when we look at works of the Old Masters, we shouldn’t be so sure of ourselves. What admirable craftsmen these people were above all. Why? Simply because they knew their job. Painting isn’t daydreaming. It’s manual work that has to be done conscientiously. Today we’re all geniuses or so we think. One thing is certain, we no longer know how to draw a hand and know hardly anything about our job. It’s because they knew their craft that the Old Masters were able to obtain such marvelous effects and the limpid colour … we’re vainly trying to find.’ And in his later career, Renoir even aimed at becoming a painter of classical figure worthy of Old Masters.

Art to me is not just about idea and innovation, but in essence, it is always about beauty and it requires craftsmanship. Old Masters always put painstaking efforts in creating a piece of art, and that’s why the art of the Old Masters always has a sense of heaviness and grandeur in it, and arouses our admiration and reverence. With homage to Old Masters, Renoir tried to achieve the mission of art through technical mastery and his unique rendering of colours and lines. He is like a great combination of the refinement of Old Masters and the new technique of modernism