Boating Couple by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Plate

Boating Couple (Aline Charigot and Renoir) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, pastel painting on paper 1881, depicts a young man and woman depicted from the shoulders up against a scintillating background of blue and green water and trees. The subjects are said to be Renoir himself and the artist model Aline Charigot, who posed for the painting Luncheon of the Boating Party the same year, and who bore Renoir a child in 1885 and married him in 1890. The woman wears a white hat with blue band and red flowers, and a dark grey and black suit with white collar. The man wears a yellow leisure hat and a pale, striped white suit. The soft treatment of figures, costume, light color and atmosphere show a masterful handling of the pastel medium, as the bright ivory white tone of the laid paper shows through the loosely applied, sketchy strokes of the pastel chalks. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919) was a French painter and leading figure of the 19th century French Impressionist movement. As a boy Renoir painted designs on fine china and fans, and studied paintings in the Louvre, until he went to study art with Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Monet, Sisley and other members of the Impressionist group. Influenced by the Realism of Courbet and the painterly sense of light and color of Monet and other plein-air painters, Renoir developed a softly painted style of vibrant light and saturated color. Renoir painted many portraits and landscapes but concentrated on dazzling scenes of contemporary life which captured a momentary snapshot in time, while the influence of Titian, Rubens and the Rococo painters inspired his many figurative paintings and domestic scenes. Renoir married and had three children who became accomplished artists themselves, and in his older age continued to paint prolifically while partially disabled by severe arthritis. In 1919 Renoir became nearly the only living artist honored by an exhibition in the Louvre alongside the works of the old masters. Renoir's fluid, masterful technique, unique sense of light and color, warm sensuality and human empathy made him one of the most beloved and popular painters of all time.