1. Education

Claude Monet painting in his Garden at Argenteuil, about 1873

© Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; used with permission

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French 1841-1919). Claude Monet painting in his Garden at Argenteuil, about 1873. Oil on canvas. 19 3/4 x 24 in. (46 x 60 cm). Bequest of Anne Parrish Titzell. 1957.614.

© Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

About the show:

During the first two decades of his career as a painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) learned a lot about his craft by doing landscape paintings. Perhaps because he was freed from the concern of representing humans (friends or patrons who might, possibly, have been offended), Renoir performed his most audacious experiments in light, color, form (or lack thereof) and brushwork on uncomplaining scenes of woods, gardens, water and land. This freedom of expression and his bold innovation as a colorist out-of-doors inevitably found their ways into the figure paintings for which Renoir is so beloved.

Renoir Landscapes: 1865-1883 takes a comprehensive look at these landscape experiences through 60-some loans from public and private collections in the US, Europe and around the globe.

Scheduled Venues

National Gallery, London: February 21-May 20, 2007
The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa: June 8-September 9, 2007
Philadelphia Museum of Art: October 4, 2007-January 6, 2008

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