by : Pierre Auguste Renoir / location : Nationalgalerie: Berlin, Germany / Year : 1868 / Oil on canvas

Original size: 29.0 x 22.0 cms

Renoir was born in Limoges, south-west France, where he began work as a painter on porcelain. He moved to Paris, joining the studio of the fashionable painter Charles Gleyre around 1861-2. Courbet influenced him. In Paris he met other painters, like Monet and Sisley, who were later to become Impressionists. In 1869 he and Monet began sketching together, and Renoir began to use lighter colours.

Around the 1880s Renoir began travelling, visiting Italy, Holland, Spain, England, Germany and North Africa. He deeply admired Raphael, Velázquez, and Rubens; the latter's influence may be seen in his works.

Renoir painted landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and modern life. His late work was mostly nude figures. Renoir's work is about pleasure, and reveals no great seriousness. He shocked Gleyre by saying, 'if painting were not a pleasure to me I should certainly not do it'.