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As two shows dedicated to the French artist take place at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, Le Monde speaks to Paul Perrin, director of conservation and collections, about what makes Auguste Renoir one of the greatest names in painting.
Transcription
00:00Renoir is really a painting of love,
00:02their naked arms,
00:02the game of the eyes of this man.
00:05It's not an erotic painting,
00:06very explicit painting.
00:07This is luncheon of the Bowdoin party,
00:10a painting considered a masterpiece
00:11by the French artist Auguste Renoir.
00:14That's a Renoir.
00:15It's a Renoir.
00:15The Renoir.
00:16But why is Renoir such an important artist?
00:19First, Renoir is known as an impressionist.
00:22What is new with the impressionism,
00:24is obviously the fact of painting
00:25the essence of the painting in plein air,
00:28and not in atelier,
00:29and to try to represent
00:31the most just as possible
00:32the light and the colors
00:34that the eye sees in reality
00:36in the light of the atelier.
00:38So we see, in fact,
00:39the importance of the elements
00:40that reflect the light,
00:41the verts,
00:42and then we see the importance
00:43of the blancs
00:44that are spread a little bit everywhere.
00:46These are the blancs
00:46that are tinted with reflections.
00:49And that's the beauty of the impressionism.
00:50It's to show that
00:51the objects in nature
00:53reflect the colors
00:55that there are around them.
00:57Second, Renoir is particularly known
00:59for painting new subjects.
01:01Classical painting of the time
01:02focused primarily on historical,
01:05mythological,
01:05or religious subjects.
01:07Renoir was groundbreaking
01:08because he depicted everyday life.
01:10Renoir is one of the first,
01:12the first even,
01:13to represent,
01:14in such a large format,
01:15a scene of popular conviviality.
01:17He often comes to this idea
01:19of a restaurant,
01:20a cafe,
01:21or a public banquet,
01:22which are places
01:23where we are.
01:23There are places
01:24of human relationship
01:25where the body is important.
01:27Here,
01:28the men who have their hands
01:30are nus.
01:30And that, for Renoir,
01:31this is important
01:32because it is a sign
01:33of a form of a kind of
01:34a kind of a kind of a nudity.
01:36Well, it's not really
01:36a nudity,
01:37but in any case,
01:38a body that is relaxed
01:39in a more natural pose.
01:42This is during the industrial revolution,
01:44with the rise of a certain bourgeoisie
01:46and a culture of leisure.
01:47So painting all of this was new.
01:49All these are attitudes that also show a form of relaxation of social codes
01:54in these places where there is a social mix between the most popular canotiers
01:59and the more bourgeois characters.
02:03Finally, unlike other impressionists who were painting figures
02:07that were sometimes disconnected from one another,
02:10Renoir painted relationships, connections, and more specifically, love.
02:15Another element that is very important in this table, in particular,
02:18is the game of regards.
02:21And Renoir les relie tous, each one to the other.
02:24It's what makes the particularity of Renoir,
02:25it's this way of assembling the people by regards and gestures.
02:29For example, here, you have the hand of this man
02:32who touches the face of the woman.
02:35Here, the hand of this woman has a look at the hand of this man.
02:39All this way of linking the characters each other,
02:42to create a feeling of intimacy, of conviviality, of links.
02:46It's really the particularity of Renoir,
02:47which, in a way, is really a part of love, in a large sense.
02:51Now, we can ask the question,
02:52is there a relationship in this table?
02:53Here, this man with this woman,
02:55he, looking at the face, it's not very clear.
02:58For some historians, he is rather interested by the woman,
03:00for others, he is rather interested by the canotiers.
03:02It's not an erotic painting, it's not an explicit painting.
03:06It's a painting on the naissance of the relationship,
03:09on the flirt, on the meetings, but also,
03:12the friendship and, in some way,
03:14a form of conviviality more large.
03:16So now, we ask, why do we still love Renoir so much today?
03:20Renoir is an artist who is quite easy to love,
03:23because it's a painting that is still talking about us today.
03:27These people who are talking on a table,
03:29in a restaurant, that could be us.
03:31And it's a painting that knows you,
03:33through this power and harmony of colors.
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