In charge : Town of Chatou and west loop Seine-Paris

Responsible : Patrick Ozanne

French

Renoir in Ile-de-France, in Normandy and in Brittany

Renoir and his friends worked outdoors (“sur le motif”)… They liked to represent “La Grenouillère”, a famous “guinguette” on the Seine riverside at Croissy-sur-Seine. This leisure resort,  where rowers boaters  liked to meet together inspired deeply the impressionists… To-day, the “Musée de la Grenouillère” helps visitors to find the warm atmosphere of this period.

Another famous place for Impressionists was the banks of the river Seine in Bougival  where was "le Bal des Canotiers" Renoir painted "the Dance at Bougivall" - and  “La Maison Fournaise” at Chatou… Renoir represented its terrace, build on the riverside of the Seine, in the famous painting: “Le déjeuner des canotiers”. The restaurant is still open and  the Fournaise Museum shows yawls used by the “canotiers”and Renoir engravings…

From 1875 to 1877, Renoir worked on Cortot street on la “Butte Montmartre” where he represented ‘the Moulin de la Galette” and “La balançoire”. Nowadays his studio is the Museum of Montmartre where it’s possible to see how Renoir was living, painting and walking in his garden… Then, he set up with his wife, Alice Charigot, in the “Château des Brouillards” from 1890 to 1897.

Gustave Caillebotte helped regularly his impressionist friends buying their canvas and he died, in 1894, Renoir, who was his testamentary executor, gave all his collection to the french State which couldn’t accept all of them!...

Renoir was invited by his friends in many places… So, he set up often in Normandy: Berneval-le Grand, Yport, Trouville and in Britanny: Pont-Aven, Pornic, Ile de Noirmoutier. In this island the municipality of Pornic organize each summer a “pique-nique Renoir” on the “Les dames” beach to recall the atmosphere of the 19th century…

From 1879 to 1885 Renoir was received by the diplomat Paul Bérard in the “Château de Wargemont”,now situated in Derchigny-Graincourt, near Dieppe, where he realize many paintings and paneled two walls in the dining room…

Renoir and his travels in foreign countries

The years 1880/90 were characterised by numerous trips in Europa.

At the spring 1880, he joined his brother in Marseille and spent one month and a half in Algeria. The following year he was with Aline in Italy visiting: Milan, venice, Rome, Naples, Pompéi and Sicilia.. Then, in December and again in april 1882 he realize frescoes of the “Mother Church” of Capistrano thanks to the generosity of Francesco Bongiorno.

In September 1883, the artist travelled at Jersey and Guernesey, accompanied by his wife and the journalist Paul Lhote. With the collector Paul Gallimard he travelled in Spain at spring 1892 where he visited the Prado museum in Madrid then in 1895 both of them went to London…

In 1896, Renoir visited Bayreuth with Martial Caillebotte, the painter’s brother… They met Richard Wagner and he did his portrait; few time after, he set up in Dresde to discover Ruben’s paintings.

His last European travel was in 1898 in the Netherlands where he saw a Rembrand’s exposition presented in Amsterdam… He was accompanied by the collector Paul Bérard and the art dealer Joseph Durand-Ruel.

Renoir at L’Estaque, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Essoyes

For the first time he visited Paul Cézanne at l’Estaque (near to Marseille) at the beginning of 1882, then, for the second time in December 1883. Nowadays, the circuit “des peintres de l’Estaque” allowed to the visitor to admirate characteristics landscapes as the Sainte-Victoire Mountain.

Renoir came to Essoyes for the first time in 1888 ; his wife Aline  Charigot was born in this village situated in the Champagne’s region and persuaded him to buy an house. Three generations were living here by his progeny… the house, adquired by the Essoyes municipality opened to visitors in 2017 but his studio, built in 1906 is now open with three original sculptures of the master…

The Cultural space untitled: “Du Côté des Renoir” shows the life of the artist and his family where they settled during thirty summers… In the biography consacred to his father, jean Renoir wrote “He don’t exist a so beautiful village in all the world”

In 1898, he discovered Cagnes-sur-Mer where he bought an olives trees park, called “les Collettes” in 1907 and built two studios one inside and the other one outside of the house. This house is to- day a museum labellised “Musée de France” open to visitors since 1960 where are exposed five original canvas and seventeen sculptures made in cooperation with Richard Guinot.

Renoir died in The Collettes on the third December, 1919. He was buried, with his wife died four years before in the Essoyes cemetary…