Everyone hates Renoir?

[Maybenartist]

Well "dickheads" goes a bit far just because they don't share your opinion on a particular painter...
Especially because we are talking about that most elusive and subjective of subjects "what is (good) art".

The only definition of that I have found to hold a bit of truth is "Whatever any individual thinks it is"...

It's not because they don't share my opinion, it's because it's far easier to talk the talk than do the walk!

 

[WFMartin]

Renoir was a great artist who has paintings in galleries worldwide. The author of the article and others of his ilk are dickheads!

I rather agree with that statement, as I tend to avoid political correctness. I basically am a painter of almost "brutal realism", however I truly appreciate the work of Renoir, because I admire the effects he has been able to create in his paintings. I am often interested in the fact that while the greater percentage of his painted area appears to be done in a very painterly style, the faces of his subjects tend to be rendered very accurately, and realistically. It's almost as if he tended to slow down, select different brushes, and mediums when he painted a face. I just find that interesting.

 

[Desforges]

I like Renoir

 

[john]

I think I would like the paintings even more if his models were more.....er.... fit? Am I allowed to say that?

But then they would become more sexual, less sensual. And maybe I wouldn't like it more, as art.

He played at that edge.

 

[E.J.H.]

Your beauty ideal is probably not the same as that of Renoir and his contemporaries. They most likely found those models very fit, as you choose to call it. I think he wasn't playing at any edge in that aspect.

 

[john]

So in his time they were more sexy. They were very fit for having babies. Small heads and big bodies.

So imagine if his models looked like the current ideal. Would we look at the paintings differently? Would they seem more like porn and less like art? There seems to be an edge there. Like the two need to be seperate. To us, his models are attractive, but not sexy, which allows for a certain aloofness. An intellectual perspective rather than one of the flesh.

 

[stlukesguild]

As a figurative painter... often a painter of the nude... I have long been fascinated with the variety of body types put forth as an "ideal" by painters over the course of art history. For a good many years there was a single ideal body-type put forth by the fashion and beauty industries... and to a lesser extent... by Hollywood. This notion of a single ideal of "beauty" has recently begun to shatter. Personally, I enjoy painting a variety of figures: lean, muscular, voluptuous... and find all of them "beautiful". But then artists are looking at the figure for more than sexual attractiveness. The internet is full of photos of "hot" young girls posing nude or nearly nude and emphasizing primarily T&A. There is nothing wrong with this... but very very few of these pictures have any real artistic merit. They don't pay attention to color harmonies, the play of light and dark, the flow of the body. While obsessing on T&A they don't recognize that the shoulders, the neck, the back, the arms, the play of hair against flesh, the legs and feet can all be beautiful.

 

[E.J.H.]

T&A puzzled me, but the urban dictionary helped me out...

 

[OliveOyl]

I have a dickhead opinion!
(And hi, john....glad you made it over here. )

So, there’s a museum around here that I love and it happens to holds one of the biggest private collections of Renoirs. One reason it makes for a good visit is because it’s small and never crowded and not “guard heavy” and I get to stick my nose up close and examine all the brushstrokes. This one - IMO - is kind of nice. Maybe its because it’s a mother-daughter painting and the child especially, is lovingly rendered.

And because I took this picture, I can zoom in on brushstrokes. Look!

But generally, Renoir doesn’t interest me, despite the fact I’ve been in a huge room filled with nothing but his paintings. I think his work IS sort of too fluffy for my taste and I don’t like Monet either, for the same reason. Or Cassat and Pissarro or Turner. But...a big yes to Manet and Cezanne, Morisot and Degas, and the post-impressionists. I just respond more positively to work that has a bit “more weight”...visually speaking. I like chunkier blocks of color and unnatural outlines more than I respond to a kind of pretty feathery lightness. So shoot me.

It’s funny, but for some reason (based on his work I guess?), I always imagined him as a fat and blubbery guy. But no, because here’s his self-portrait.

I took this picture because HIS picture is surrounded by this gorgeous frame. (Is gorgeous the same as pretty?) And because of this "chunky outline" around his interesting face, I suppose I can say that it's my favorite Renoir.

 

[Artyczar]

Olive, I like the Renoir you posted and I don't think I remember it. I may like it more than any other I remember. I am not a fan of Pissarro either, but I do like Monet. I tend to like a huge range of work, maybe because of general appreciation, I don't know, but some of this stuff actually moves me too. Turner is okay I guess. Cassat, not so much. Renoir feels classic to me though. I don't think you are a dickhead for having your opinion. We all have them.

However, I think that saying only realism is real art and anything else is not might not be a great opinion since so many would disagree with that as a fact. It can certainly be art that you don't like, but it's still art. That is not directed at you by the way. That's something William mentioned. Not to start an argument, but I take some offense to it since I don't paint realism, and some others here also do not. I guess we are not making real art according to William. Or did he mean something else?

 

[john]

Thanks Olive. It's really is great to see everyone here.

I think my favorite Renoir is The Swing. Her dress reminds me of that blue and white porceline. The dappled light. And talk about brushstrokes. This JPEG can be magnified to see them, and holy smokes, the layered.. ...scumbling?. I look at it and still can't figure it out.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Swing-Renoir.jpeg

 

[Artyczar]

The light in that painting reminds me a lot of Monet. Especially in that guy's hat.

 

[stlukesguild]

Morisot? Yes; seriously underrated. far better than Cassatt IMO (although I love Cassatt's prints). Cezanne? I have a love-hate relationship with him. Monet? Brilliant. Turner?! My God, Olive!! Have you have the chance to see a good body of his paintings in person? They are absolutely stunning and point the way toward Abstract Expressionism. Although my own work in more linear and sculptural, Turner is the greatest landscape painter bar none IMO. Manet? Few painters can manipulate paint as well. Degas?! He is my favorite Impressionist without a doubt and easily ranks within the top 20 IMO... if only due to his influence on my own work. Of course, as a pastel artist who better can I turn to?

That Renoir portrait? It is damn good. It has a chunky solidity like a Cezanne apple. The background reminds me of Cezanne as well.