PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919)

Portraiture among the Impressionist artists was frowned upon – a sign that an artist was selling out for money. It was landscapes that truly captured their doctrine and the plight of the Petite Bourgeoisie. In landscapes, no patron dictated how artists' brush strokes should look, or how much colour or texture was appropriate. However, everything was different with Renoir. Renoir was able to transform the constructs of the traditional portrait, elevating its status among his colleagues. 'When Renoir decided, in mid-career, to try his hand at fashionable Parisian portraiture, he revolutionized the form by treating it with the same freedom that his friends were bringing to landscape painting' (G. Néret, Renoir Painter of Happiness: 1841-1918, Los Angeles, 2009, p. 184).