Renoir

Résumé : J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is the most masterly of British painters. His work exploits the great traditions of European painting, while anticipating the development of modern art in the twentieth century. As a Romantic, he was from his earliest works sensitive to the dramas found in land- and seascapes, though increasingly light and colour alone became all-important to him. he travelled through England, France, Italy and Switzerland, and his views are possibly the most imaginative evocations of these countries ever painted. The original essay By William Gaunt, an authority on British art, has been updated for this edition by the adding of plate commentaries and many black-and-white illustrations, making, it a perfect introduction to one of the greatest British masters.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (18-11-1919) was one of the founders of Impressionism and a friend of Monet, Pissarro and Sisley. He worked side-by-side with Monet on the banks of the Seine, sharing his concern with light and colour, but landscape painting never displaced his enduring love of figure painting. A natural heir to the delicacy of Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard, delighting in the ample curves of the nudes he painted increasingly frequently in his later wears, Renoir was also a master at capturing the spirit of Parisian life. His art is filled with optimism - his lifelong philosophy was that he painted because it gave him pleasure, and he shares that pleasure with those who see his work. It is almost always summer in his pictures, and in paintings like Moulin de la Galette, The Dance at Bougival and The Lucheon of the Boating Party he gives us an enduring record of his contemporaries relaxing and enjoying their leisure.In this expanded version of William Gaunt's illuminating essay on Renoir (first published in 1962), Kathleen Adler has added notes to the plates and a wealth of black-and-white comparative illustrations, to make this the perfect introduction to the life and work of an extraordinary artist.