Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) stands out among the great artists for his willingness to paint pictures that are straightforwardly pretty and charming: he chooses familiar and sympathetic human types as his subjects, and depicts them with an appealing immediacy, using an attractively bright and rosy palette. Not all of his four thousand or so paintings are equally good; some fall short on formal grounds, and others, not surprisingly, sink into sentimentality. But Renoir's best works are masterpieces, perhaps the most joyous and effervescent ones in the history of art—his great monuments to leisure, Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party; his delicate portraits of women and children, like the winsome Girl with a Watering Can; and his many frankly sensual nudes. In this highly readable monograph, noted art historian Anne Distel offers an illuminating new account of the life of the man who created such singularly sparkling works. The author deftly narrate