Renoir in the 20th Century, an exhibition organized by the Réunion des musées nationaux, the Musée d’Orsay and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is currently appearing at Paris' Musée d’Orsay through January 4. It will then be shown at the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art from February 14 to May 9, 2010, then in the Philadelphia Museum of Art from June 12 to September 5, 2010.
Renoir was acclaimed as an emblematic figure of Impressionism in the 1870s, and became an inspiration to the generation of artists that followed. Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis expressed their admiration for Renoir's work at the turn of the century.
Since then, appreciation of “the late Renoir” has changed somewhat: the paintings from this period are now little-known and often not particularly liked. Although his landscapes (“Renoir’s Landscapes 1865-1883”, London-Ottawa-Philadelphia 2007-2008) and portraits (“Renoir’s Portraits”, Ottawa-Chicago-Fort Worth 1997-1998) have given rise to exhibitions in recent years, there have been no studies or exhibitions focusing specifically on Renoir’s last years, as was the case for Monet or Cezanne (“Monet in the 20th century”, Boston-London, 1998-1999; “Cezanne, the last years (1895-1906)”, Paris -New York, 1978). This exhibition is dedicated to the exploration of these fertile years.
Visit www.rmn.fr/Renoir-in-the-20th-Century.
