Chronology

Date

Event

1841

Pierre-Auguste Renoir born on February 25 in Limoges, France. Renoir's father Leonard was a tailor. Renoir had five brothers.

Self Portrait, 1875. Oil on Canvas, 39.1 x 31.7 cm. Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA.

1844

The Renoir family moves to Paris.

1854

Pierre-Auguste Renoir quits school, becomes an apprentice with a porcelain-painting company, Lévy Frères.

1859

Renoir apprentices with a M. Gilbert, who paints blinds, which are used in religious mission headquarters.

1860

Renoir starts copying paintings in the Louvre.

1862

Renoir passes his exams to enter the École des Beaux-Arts. Renoir joins the independent studio of Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (1806-1874) where he meets Sisley, Monet, and Bazille.

Bazille 1867 Oil on Canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1864

A Renoir painting is accepted for exhibition at the Salon de Paris, but Renoir destroys it after it is shown.

1865

Two paintings submitted by Renoir to the Salon de Paris are accepted for exhibition. Renoir starts painting in the Fontainebleau forest.

1867

Renoir's Diana (oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) and Women in the Garden (oil on canvas, private collection) rejected by the Salon de Paris.

Diana the Huntress, 1867. Oil on Canvas, 197 x 132 cm. National Gallery of Art, DC.

1868

Salon de Paris accepts Renoir's Portrait of Lise (painted in 1867; oil on canvas, 184 x 185 cm; Essen Folkwang Museum, Germany). The subject was Lise Tréhot, Renoir's favorite model from 1865 to 1872.

Portrait of Lise, 1867. Oil on Canvas. Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany.

1870

Renoir shows two paintings at the Salon de Paris: Odalisque and Bather with a Griffon Dog. Also, Renoir serves in the Franco-Prussian War, having enlisted in the 10th Chasseurs.

1872-74

Renoir meets influential art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) who buys Renoir's painting The Pont des Arts. Renoir paints with Claude Monet and helps to organize the first Impressionist Exhibition of 1874.

Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876. Oil on Canvas, 113 x 74 cm. The Barnes Foundation, PA.

1874

Renoir paints La Loge (oil on canvas, 80 x 63 cm, Courtauld Collection, London, U.K.). La Loge exhibited at the First Impressionist Exhibit, Galerie Nader, Paris, 15 April – May 1974 and the Ninth Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, London, November 1874.

La Loge (Theater Box), 1874. Oil on Canvas, 80 x 63.5 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art.

1875

At Hôtel Drouot in Paris, Renoir sells ten of his paintings and meets Georges Charpentier. Charpentier's gallery in Paris was one of the most important in promoting and selling works by Impressionists. The gallery was founded in 1802 and disbanded in 1970. Through Charpentier, Renoir acquires one of the versions of the picture Bathers, 1874-5 by Paul Cézanne.

Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers' Lunch), 1875. Oil on Canvas, 55.1 x 65.9 cm. Art Institute of Chicago.

1879

Renoir exhibits his painting of Madame Charpentier and her children at the Salon de Paris. Renoir meets Paul Bérard and spends many weekends at the Bérard estate in Wargemont.

Mme Charpentier, 1876-7. Oil on Canvas, 46.5 x 38 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1880

Meets Aline Charigot, whom he later marries. She was a dressmaker, born on May 23, 1854 (twenty years younger than Renoir). Her father was a wine grower in the Champagne region.

Studies of Pierre Renoir; His Mother, Aline Charigot; Nudes; and Landscape, 1885/86. Oil on Canvas, 46.1 x 39.2 cm. Art Institute of Chicago.

1880-81

Paints Luncheon of the Boating Party (oil on canvas, 130 x 173 cm, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC). It depicts his fiancée Aline Charigot and many of his circle at the Restaurant Fournaise.

1881

Renoir's first journey to Algeria. Renoir also visits Rome, Venice, Naples, Florence, Capri, Pompeii, and other sites on the Italian peninsula.

1882

Renoir paints Richard Wagner's portrait at Palmero, Italy. In the same year he visits Cézanne at L'Estaque. Renoir becomes ill with pneumonia. Travels to Algeria again when he recovers.

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-1881. Oil on Canvas, 129.9 x 172.7 cm. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

1883

Renoir tours the parts of France he had never seen before. With Claude Monet, Renoir travels to Côte d'Azur. Alone, Renoir visits the Ilse of Jersey. Renoir later writes to Ambroise Vollard about this period: "About 1883 a kind of break occurred in my work. I had gone to the end of impressionism and I was reaching the conclusion that I didn't know how either to paint or draw. In a word, I was at a dead end."

Dance in the Country, 1883. Oil on Canvas, 180 x 90 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1883

Paints Dance in the City (oil on canvas, 180 x 90 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), depicting Suzanne Valadon, herself a painter, with Renoir's friend Paul Lhôte.

Dance in the City, 1883. Oil on Canvas, 180 x 90 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1885

Pierre, Renoir's first son is born.

Maternity, 1885. Oil on Canvas, 72 x 91 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1886

Finishes painting The Umbrellas (oil on canvas, 180 x 115 cm, National Gallery, London, U.K.), which was begun in 1880. Renoir says his later technique in the picture was influenced by his study of Ingres and Raphael.

1889

Renoir diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

1890

Renoir marries Aline Charigot. She bore him three children and frequently modeled for him, important examples being: Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881, Phillips, Washington, D.C); Dance in the Country (1883, Musée d'Orsay, Paris).

1892

Renoir's painting At the Piano bought by the government of France.

Young Girls at the Piano, 1892. Oil on Canvas, 116 x 90 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1893

Birth of Renoir's second son, Jean.

The Artist's Family, 1896. Oil in Canvas, 172.7 x 137.2 cm. The Barnes Foundation, PA.

1900

French government awards Renoir the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

1901

Renoir exhibits at Bernheim-Jeune in Paris, March 15-31 along with Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, and Cézanne.

Portrait of Cézanne, 1902. Lithograph on ivory paper, 23 x 23.5 cm. Art Institute of Chicago.

1901

Birth of Claude (CoCo) Renoir.

1902

Renoir's arthritis worsens, essentially crippling him.

1902

Maurice Gangnat, steel magnate, buys twelve Renoir paintings. Renoir moves to "Les Collettes" at Cagnes-sur-Mer, 15 km west of Nice.

Landscape. Near Cagnes, 1907-19. Oil on Canvas, 46.67 x 55.88 cm. Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester.

1908

Renoir paints the portrait of the art dealer Ambroise Vollard (oil on canvas, 81.6 x 65.2 cm, Courtauld Collection, London, U.K.). The portrait of Vollard is exhibited at Durand-Ruel in Paris in June of 1912.

1910

To visit his friends and patrons, Austrian noble family, the Thurneyssens, Renoir travels to Munich.

1912

In October, a significant art dealer Paul Cassirer exhibits eleven works by Renoir at the Fiftieth Anniversary exhibition in Berlin.

In December, Dr Albert Barnes, an American collector, buys his first Renoir from Ambroise Vollard. Barnes ultimately amassed 180 works by Renoir by the end of the World War II (1945).

Conversation, 1912. Oil on Canvas, 54.2 x 65.2 cm. National Museum Wales.

1915

Aline, Renoir's wife dies on June 15.

Henri Matisse visits Renoir's studio in Côte d'Azur and says of Renoir's oeuvre that these are "the loveliest nudes ever painted…Time holds no nobler story, no more heroic, no more magnificent achievement than that of Renoir."

Large Nude, 1907. Oil on Canvas, 1550 x 700 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

1916

Renoir paints a portrait of the steel multi-millionaire Maurice Gangnat (1856-1924). By this time, Gangnat owned 180 paintings by Renoir. Only four were sold at the sale of Gangnat's estate on 25 June 1925 at Hôtel Drouot.

Portrait of Maurice Gangnat, c. 1916. Oil on Canvas, 30.5 x 46 cm. Private collection.

1918

Renoir paints Woman tying her shoe (oil on canvas, 50.5 x 56.5 cm, Courtauld Collection, London, U.K.). The picture is first exhibited at Galerie Barbazanes, Paris, June 1922.

1919

On December 3, Renoir dies at "Les Collettes".