Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the Beauty of Life

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the leaders of the Impressionist period. The Impressionist period was light and spontaneous, which was against the formal way of the years before. It captures people in carefree leisure with color and light. In Renoir's early years, he stuck to painting beautiful landscapes, but broke away from the movement in his later years for a more disciplined and structured technique for portraits and figure paintings. Renoir painted the beauty in what he saw; the beauty in life. Moreover, he beautifies some of them even more than they are. The pictures may be appealing, though the subjects he is painting are not. He manages to paint the beauty in life's simple pleasures, such as motherhood, children, and of course love. Renoir was once quoted saying, "Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world". (Nicolas Pioch)…