Renoir was born 1841 in Limoges, a town located in the central-west France to a father of a tailor and a mother of a seamstress. He worked as a porcelain painter from 13, but because of the decreased demands due to industrialization, he started to pursue a career as a painter.
Being accepted to the atelier of Charles Gleyre at the age of 20, he met Monet and Sisley and joined the activities of the impressionists. The impressionists conducted eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886 where Renoir participated in four. Renoir was a successful portrait painter in the 1870s depicting city manners and customs, suburb leisure and females in a bright, vivid brush stroke.
In the early 1880s, Renoir travelled to Italy where he was fascinated by traditional arts such as the paintings by Raffaello and the ancient Roman art. This experience became a turning point for the painter in the age of 40s feeling impasse with the impressionism where he started the repetitious trial and error in search of a new method. This era’s expression tends to have strong contour line and volume which is called “Ingres style”.
Started to suffer rheumatism before reaching 50, seeking warmer climate, Renoir moved his residence to Cagnes-sur-Mer. Strongly stimulated by the strong sunlight and abundant nature of the Mediterranean shore, Renoir tied a brush to his aching right hand to actively paint which then gave birth to female portraits and nude women with almost-melting soft brush stroke and colors. Such works received great praises from critics and collectors and gave strong influences to the later generations of painters.