Renoir Among Women

Throughout his life, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Limoges 1841, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1919) portrayed women time and time again. The painter made them the undisputed central characters of his particular artistic world. His wife, his lovers, friends, models: all were all immortalized on canvas.

The exhibition includes around 60 pieces and portrays the development of Renoir's work from a new perspective, based on his different interpretations of the female image in his work. His Impressionist paintings feature the modern Parisienne, his most intimate vision of motherhood and the timeless beauty of the nude, integrated with nature, a characteristic of his later years. Renoir surrounded himself with women in life and through his brushstrokes reflected their delicacy, sensitivity and voluptuousness. If we take his whole oeuvre into account, it must be noted - to echo many contemporary critics of the artist - that Renoir was most definitely a painter of women.

As part of our firm commitment to culture, this Fundación MAPFRE exhibition extols the overall artistic output of the French painter, journeying through his entire career and observing how the artist developed through his models. This exhibition was organized and executed thanks to the scientific assistance and outstanding loans of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie.

• Impressionism. Renoir was one of the key figures of the Impressionism, an artistic movement in which he was involved from its first exhibitions back in 1874. Paris was the most important city in the world in the late 19th century. And Renoir was in Paris. The society parties, electric light and bustle of the city represented the start of the modern world's conquest of daily life.

• Women. Here we see Renoir through his women. Women were always his main source of inspiration, the eternal object of seduction and the living incarnation of art and beauty.

• Bal du Moulin de la Galette. You can admire the “Bal du Moulin de la Galette” (1876), which returns to Barcelona 100 years after it was first displayed at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1917 in an exhibition promoted by Catalan artists to illustrate the importance of French art from the late 19th century up to that time.

• Influences. In order to better understand the singularity of Renoir and his ability to influence both his contemporaries and modern-day artists, the exhibition includes works by Van Gogh, Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Picasso.

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