Chrysanthemums
Sul dipinto
“I just let my brain rest when I paint flowers,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir remarked. “I don’t experience the same tension as I do when confronted by the model. When I am painting flowers, I establish the tones, I study the values carefully without worrying about losing the picture. I don’t dare do this with a figure piece for fear of ruining it.”
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Scheda
Nel frattempo, nella vita di Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Tutta la vita1879
Triumph at the Salon of 1879
Presenting "Portrait of Madame Charpentier and Her Children" and the full-length "Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary," Renoir won universal recognition, and with it financial independence.
1880
Meeting Aline Charigot
Renoir met the young seamstress Aline Charigot — his future wife. His happiness with her colored the works of his so-called "Ingres" period.
1881
Algeria, Madrid, Italy
Renoir traveled to Algeria, the land of Delacroix, then to Madrid to see the works of Velázquez, and to Italy, where he saw Titian in Florence and Raphael in Rome. The journey convinced him that with Impressionism he had "reached the limit," and turned him toward classicism.
6 luglio 1881
Daughter born: Lucienne Bisson
1882
Pneumonia
Renoir suffered a bout of pneumonia that permanently damaged his respiratory system, and spent six weeks convalescing in Algeria.
1883–1890
The "Ingres" period
Impressed by the classics of the Italian Renaissance and by Ingres, Renoir effectively broke with Impressionism: his lines became crisp, his colors more restrained and cooler. The artist himself called this period "sour"; it includes "Dance in the Country," "Dance in the City" and "Dance at Bougival."
