Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880 X 1881

Washington DC, The Phillips Collection, 1637: https://www.phillipscollection.org/collection/luncheon-boating-party

“They tell you that a tree is only a combination of chemical elements. I prefer to believe that God created it, and that it is inhabited by a nymph.” 

Re-enchantment is all the rage at the moment – understandable, of course, in our ever-anxious world. There have been no end of books published on the theme in the last couple of years. Perhaps, though, if you’re feeling the twenty-first-century blues, an easier remedy might be to look at the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  

He was the most genuinely working class of the Impressionists. His family had travelled to Paris from Limoges when he was a boy. For a while he supported the whole family, working as a porcelain painter before he had saved up enough to enrol at an art school.  

Never ashamed of his origins, and in many ways more of a cultural conservative than most of the group, he took his chances where he found them – and never stopped changing. He once likened his life to a cork bobbing along in a stream – happy to go where the current took him.  

Join us as we explore the life and work of this most refreshing of Impressionists. Watch out for the nymphs… you won’t have to wait long!

RJW F2424 Online (via Zoom)

A 5-hour short course, delivered via 2 x 2½-hour sessions on consecutive Saturdays (3 & 10 August, 10.30-1.00).

£40 (individual registration); £72 (for two people sharing one screen).