Born on February 25, 1841 in Limoges, Renoir is one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement. He moved to Paris with his family, where he was apprenticed as a porcelain painter in 1856. Using his meager wages, Renoir attended painting lessons in the atelier of Charles Gleyre, where he met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille. He joined with them to organize the first of the Impressionist exhibitions in 1874 and participated in subsequent shows. Unlike other Impressionists, who worked mainly with landscape and natural light, Renoir preferred to focus on individuals, most of whom he depicted in moments of leisure, indoors and out.
Young Girls at the Piano dates from a time of crisis in the artist’s career. By the late 1870s, Renoir felt that he had “wrung Impressionism dry” and, influenced by Raphael’s work on a trip to Italy in 1881, turned away from fleeting effects of light for a more monumental approach to form. Initially, his efforts to use more precise draftsmanship resulted in paintings that were, in his own words, “extraordinarily dry,” but by the end of the decade, he had evolved the approach, seen in Young Girls at the Piano, that combines more exact drawing with the warm tones of his earlier Impressionism. The identity of the girls in the picture is not known, but the painting above shown is displayed in Joslyn Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, and is the first, and most spontaneous, prototype for a painting commissioned by the French government. Coming this summer is the "Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color" exhibit at Joslyn!
Now take a gander of this similar painting now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art dated as late 1891 or early 1892. Likewise it is called "Two Young Girls at the Piano". Apparently this painting (and its similar ilk) are a result of Renoir being invited by the French government to produce a painting for a new museum in Paris, the Musée du Luxembourg, which was to be devoted to the work of living artists. Up to that time, the French State had never made any official purchase from Renoir. In fact at first there was much derision and scorn from the French artistic establishment as to Impressionism which resulted in Impressionist art not being shown in the Salons at Paris w...resulting in their only being shown in Salaon de Refusés such as in 1863 and separate such showings set apart from the traditional Salons of the time. Traditional paintings such as by Ernest Meissonier (whom, one notes, is no longer remembered as well as impressionists such as Manet, Monet, Degas, Whistler) was at that time the preferred and scucessful artist. As noted above, Renoir had moved away somewhat from the Impressionist style but still employed its influence by the time of the painting of the Girls at the Piano paintings.
So again, finally in an attempt to bring newer artist into the lime light with proper official recognition, in 1892 Stépahe Mallarmé helped by a Roger Marx, a member of the Beaux Arts administration in Paris, steps were taken to bring Impressionist and current nontraditional works into the national museums ( The preceding painting apparently is from the Lehman collection and now at the Metropolitain Museum of Art in NYC.)
Now, the above painting, of which you will note is trés similar to the above two paintings and this one hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. So which paiting actually hung in the Musée du Luxembourg originally? Apparently not the one at Joslyn as it is claimed as one of the first prototypes. Apparently four finished versions using the same composition (the one at the Musee d'Orsay and the one in the Metropolitan Museum de New York (see above) and two others in private collections apparently including that of Gustave Caillebotte (or his descendants rather as he was a collector but artist in his own right at the time (see Paris Street; Rainy Day 1877 (Chicago Institute of Art)(Caillebotte also was responsible (organizer/financier/promoter) for exhibits of Impressionism especially in the late 1870s/early 1880s). There also exists a sketch of the Two Girls at the Piano in oils (Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie) and a pastel of the same size (private collection). The repetition of this motif shows Renoir's concentrated effort in this attempt.
Actually there is so much regarding Renoir..how he employed Susan Valadon as a model in the 1880s (She is an artist herself and mother of Utrillo, yet another artist). But the above shall ponder only one of his masterpieces....a mystery of work of which I had pondered heretofore.
Born on February 25, 1841 in Limoges, Renoir is one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement. He moved to Paris with his family, where he was apprenticed as a porcelain painter in 1856. Using his meager wages, Renoir attended painting lessons in the atelier of Charles Gleyre, where he met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille. He joined with them to organize the first of the Impressionist exhibitions in 1874 and participated in subsequent shows. Unlike other Impressionists, who worked mainly with landscape and natural light, Renoir preferred to focus on individuals, most of whom he depicted in moments of leisure, indoors and out.
Young Girls at the Piano dates from a time of crisis in the artist’s career. By the late 1870s, Renoir felt that he had “wrung Impressionism dry” and, influenced by Raphael’s work on a trip to Italy in 1881, turned away from fleeting effects of light for a more monumental approach to form. Initially, his efforts to use more precise draftsmanship resulted in paintings that were, in his own words, “extraordinarily dry,” but by the end of the decade, he had evolved the approach, seen in Young Girls at the Piano, that combines more exact drawing with the warm tones of his earlier Impressionism. The identity of the girls in the picture is not known, but the painting above shown is displayed in Joslyn Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, and is the first, and most spontaneous, prototype for a painting commissioned by the French government. Coming this summer is the "Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color" exhibit at Joslyn!
Now take a gander of this similar painting now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art dated as late 1891 or early 1892. Likewise it is called "Two Young Girls at the Piano". Apparently this painting (and its similar ilk) are a result of Renoir being invited by the French government to produce a painting for a new museum in Paris, the Musée du Luxembourg, which was to be devoted to the work of living artists. Up to that time, the French State had never made any official purchase from Renoir. In fact at first there was much derision and scorn from the French artistic establishment as to Impressionism which resulted in Impressionist art not being shown in the Salons at Paris w...resulting in their only being shown in Salaon de Refusés such as in 1863 and separate such showings set apart from the traditional Salons of the time. Traditional paintings such as by Ernest Meissonier (whom, one notes, is no longer remembered as well as impressionists such as Manet, Monet, Degas, Whistler) was at that time the preferred and scucessful artist. As noted above, Renoir had moved away somewhat from the Impressionist style but still employed its influence by the time of the painting of the Girls at the Piano paintings.
So again, finally in an attempt to bring newer artist into the lime light with proper official recognition, in 1892 Stépahe Mallarmé helped by a Roger Marx, a member of the Beaux Arts administration in Paris, steps were taken to bring Impressionist and current nontraditional works into the national museums ( The preceding painting apparently is from the Lehman collection and now at the Metropolitain Museum of Art in NYC.)
Now, the above painting, of which you will note is trés similar to the above two paintings and this one hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. So which paiting actually hung in the Musée du Luxembourg originally? Apparently not the one at Joslyn as it is claimed as one of the first prototypes. Apparently four finished versions using the same composition (the one at the Musee d'Orsay and the one in the Metropolitan Museum de New York (see above) and two others in private collections apparently including that of Gustave Caillebotte (or his descendants rather as he was a collector but artist in his own right at the time (see Paris Street; Rainy Day 1877 (Chicago Institute of Art)(Caillebotte also was responsible (organizer/financier/promoter) for exhibits of Impressionism especially in the late 1870s/early 1880s). There also exists a sketch of the Two Girls at the Piano in oils (Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie) and a pastel of the same size (private collection). The repetition of this motif shows Renoir's concentrated effort in this attempt.
Actually there is so much regarding Renoir..how he employed Susan Valadon as a model in the 1880s (She is an artist herself and mother of Utrillo, yet another artist). But the above shall ponder only one of his masterpieces....a mystery of work of which I had pondered heretofore.
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