A Sea of Stories
20
Renoir
Text
Ángeles García Illustrations
Miguel Cerro
A Sea of Stories
www.editorialmediterrania.com
Renoir
A Sea of Stories
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A Journey of Discovery
I
remember perfectly the first time my
embarked on an unforgettable adventure.
parents took me to Paris. It was their
Entering the Orsay Museum, which is
I was old enough to get to know it. In
left open-mouthed with amazement by
favourite city and they decided that
reality, I preferred spending my holidays
in the countryside. I’d always loved nature
housed in a former railway station, I was
a beautiful painting entitled, Dance at Le
Moulin
de
la
Galette. I
could
not
and animals, and I found museums tiring
understand where the light came from.
convinced me to go by revealing a secret:
around and dance with all these people
and boring. In the end, my mother “Paris is amazing. Its museums are not
simply museums but magical places that
contain extraordinary treasures and are inhabited by some extremely talented
characters.� Since I also loved treasures
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and mystery books, I did not object and we
I wanted to enter the painting to walk who seemed so happy. Surely this could not be a painting. It had to be real: a
window looking out onto another world. I had entered a magical place, just like my mother had promised.
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Who Was Renoir?
young age, he was a happy, charming boy
Then I started to notice a name that
work in order to earn money for the family.
appeared in most of the texts in the museum: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. So I began
to ask my parents all about this man that I had just discovered and who, without me
realising it at the time, had captivated me forever. I learned that the artist was
born on 25th February 1841 in Limoges, a French town famous for its porcelain. The artist’s father was a tailor, who had seven
children but did not earn much money. So, when Auguste was only four, they all moved to Paris in search of a better life.
As he was always drawing and scribbling in notebooks, his father sent him to a school
where he could learn to paint. From a very
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and when he was thirteen he began to
His job consisted of painting delicate posies of flowers on porcelain cups and
plates. He is said to have been paid five
centimes for every dozen posies he painted. Who knows how much that would be in
today’s money, but he was very happy. Later, he also decorated fans. By doing
these two jobs, he learnt his trade and also discovered how to play with colour. His
thoughts about art were also formed
during this time: painting had to be done
properly and be very beautiful, because there were so many unpleasant things in the world. He was a man who loved life
and wanted to express this passion through his painting.
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We continued our museum visit and the
precisely what the Impressionists aimed to
of the group for certain periods, what these
They did not outline figures or paint black
as I stood in front of the various portraits
during the 1860s. Although the group only
to replicate what they saw in front of them in
brushstrokes and the layers of paint were
feeling of being in a magical place increased of impossibly beautiful girls and women.
I could not take my eyes off them. To me, they seemed to radiate an intense feeling of serenity. I wanted to enter Renoir’s world
provoke. This group of artists formed in Paris lasted for ten years, during this time they
organised eight exhibitions, which made them
the most popular artists in history, even today.
and join the figures in enjoying the nature
I asked my parents how the Impressionists
touch the trees, to stand in the light and feel
that although these artists did not all think
that the artist had created. I wanted to run and
the wind and the sun’s gentle rays. My mother explained that my reaction was
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differed from other artists. They pointed out in exactly the same way and that many of them, including Renoir, were only members
artists had in common was that they wanted an honest way and to give their work a
spontaneous feel, capturing a moment in time. They explained that the very challenge of trying to paint trees, flowers and people
shadows, as was traditional. They used small sometimes very thick. Remaining faithful to
what they saw, trees could be painted mauve, faces orange and clouds green. I was told that a perfect example of this is The Swing, a work
under the light conditions at a certain time of
in which we view a man from the back saying
Normally, they tried to finish a painting in a
standing on a swing, whilst a little girl and
day must have been exciting in itself. single sitting, in just one day. Sometimes they despaired because they did not have enough
time to finish their work before the sun set.
something amusing to a young woman
another man look on. This is a typical happy
scene set in a beautiful garden, which transmits the joys of life.
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