ART 235: Pre-Modern Art History

A major new biography of this enduringly popular artist by the world's foremost scholar of his life and work Expertly researched and beautifully written by the world's leading authority on Auguste Renoir's life and work, Renoir fully reveals this most intriguing of Impressionist artists. The narrative is interspersed with more than 1,100 extracts from letters by, to, and about Renoir, 452 of which come from unpublished letters.

While painting in the new impressionist style, Renoir remained committed to the full-length format, which was eschewed by most of his fellow impressionists as too traditional. This format afforded Renoir the opportunity to devote himself to the heroic painting of everyday life, and also to linger on the finest details of his figures' fashionable costumes and accessories. Ten iconic canvases display the rich variety of this artist's painterly technique.

With a consuming enthusiasm for the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), art collector Sterling Clark assembled one of the greatest private collections of Renoir's work during the first half of the 20th century. This book takes fresh look at the thirty-two Renoir paintings in the Clark collection, and brings to light new and often revelatory scholarship concerning the importance of each work, both within Renoir's oeuvre and within the Clark collection.