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Kevin Asirvadam
Stefanie Ramsey
Art Appreciation A2
18 April 2016

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Elements and Principles of Art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the most influential artists of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, due largely to his involvement in
the birth of Impressionism. He, along with Claude Monet and a few other
artists, started the Impressionist movement, bringing to the art world a
completely new style of painting with brighter colors and feathery, detached
brush strokes. However, Renoir did not continue to paint Impressionist pieces
throughout his life. For seven years, he entered a dry or Ingresque period
in which his paintings began to resemble more traditional styles, with precise
lines and colder colors. After this period, Renoir entered a pearly period,
focusing less on sharp and defined outlines, and returning to the usage of
more vibrant colors. As Renoirs stylistic choices changed over the years, so
did the way that the elements and principles of art were reflected in his
work.
IMPRESSIONISM
Renoirs Impressionistic paintings were characterized by light, vibrant
colors and short, broken brushstrokes. One example of an Impressionistic
painting by Renoir is Luncheon of the Boating Party. This painting uses the
contrast between deep greens and blues and vivid reds and yellows to great

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effect. A sense of space is created by the people in the painting overlapping
each other, and the decorations on the table add a sense of shape. There is
repetition in the striped awning, the guardrail posts, and the yellow straw
hats that the guests are wearing. The manner in which the viewpoint is tilted
allows the painting to have a balance between the two people on the left
side and the large crowd on the right side.
DRY OR INGRESQUE PERIOD
Eventually, Renoir tired of Impressionistic painting and started to
return to more traditional styles by using flatter, cooler colors, and more
heavily defined lines. The painting The Umbrellas is an excellent example
of this. As opposed to the broken lines in Impressionism, this piece has
better-defined borders between different components. Again, the overlapping
of characters in the painting creates a sense of space. The sense of
repetition provided by the umbrellas, combined with a large amount of blue
coloring, creates a sense of unity in the painting. In addition, the positioning
of the umbrellas creates a visual scale, along with a movement into the
background of the painting, following the street.
PEARLY PERIOD
After 1890, Renoir moved from the rigid style he had employed during
the dry period to a looser one, regaining some Impressionistic values, such
as the use of brighter colors and the lack of outlines of specific objects or
characters. One of Renoirs paintings from this time period was Young girls
at the piano. This painting, like many of Renoirs from the pearly period,

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places an emphasis on the main subject of the piece: in this case, the heads
of the girls. The positioning of the objects in the painting allows for this
emphasis; the objects form visual lines leading to the area around where the
girls heads are located.
CONCLUSION
Pierre-Auguste Renoir had many developments throughout his career in
his painting styles, but overall, each style has its own charms and its own
deterrents, and it can be seen very easily in the masterful way that he
combined the elements and principles of design that he was a very talented
artist indeed.

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Works Cited
"Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'The Umbrellas' Ca 1881-86." Colourlex.com.
ColourLex. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <http://colourlex.com/project/renoir-theumbrellas/>.
"Young Girls at the Piano - by Pierre-Auguste Renoir." Renoir.net.
www.Renoir.net. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <http://www.renoir.net/young-girlsat-the-piano.jsp>.
"Auguste RENOIR 1841_1919." Impressionniste.net. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.impressionniste.net/renoir_auguste.htm>.
"Luncheon of the Boating Party Analysis." Artble.com. Artble. Web. 20 Apr.
2016. <http://www.artble.com/artists/pierreauguste_renoir/paintings/luncheon_of_the_boating_party/more_informa
tion/analysis>.
"Pierre-Auguste Renoir Style and Technique." Artble.com. Artble. Web. 20
Apr. 2016. <http://www.artble.com/artists/pierreauguste_renoir/more_information/style_and_technique>.