Portraits by Renoir.

• Author: Groom, Gloria

The pictures of Pierre Auguste Renoir reflect a vision both harmonious and joyous and seem to transport viewers out of themselves by presenting an improved, more brilliant version of the world around them. The appeal of these works goes beyond the subject. The amazing quality of spontaneity--of seemingly effortless ease--allows viewers to believe, at least momentarily, in this gentler, less uncertain world.

The image of the artist reflected in his paintings, however, is not the image of Renoir the man. Indeed, he was far from spontaneous and trouble-free. Not only did Renoir ceaselessly question the direction of his art, but he often was at odds with the artistic, social, economic, and political conditions that characterized la vie moderne in Paris during the last third of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th.

Through his painting, Renoir sought to recreate the world not as it was, but as he felt it should be. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his portraits. Painting a likeness involved a complicity with the sitter and a relationship. As Renoir said, in order to paint his subjects--whether models, friends, or clients--he needed to "speak their language." He did not mean that he had to be like them, for clearly Renoir--described as nervous, anxious, and often ill at ease around society people--was an outsider in many respects. Yet, he was able to create a transcendent likeness of his subjects and give them souls--souls that were not necessarily their own, but, rather, those of his art and artifice.

Of all the Impressionists, Renoir came from the most modest background. The son of a tailor and dressmaker, he was the sixth of a family of seven children (two of whom died in infancy). Renoir's earliest artistic training was as an artisan, not an artist. He began as an apprentice to a porcelain painter, then became a decorator for artistic window blinds, but his talents and ambitions were greater. In 1861, the 20-year-old Renoir enrolled in the Paris studio of the history painter Charles Gleyre and, by the following spring, he had been admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the traditional training ground for serious artists. This step proved to be a turning point in his career. Socially, he "advanced" from a vocation to a profession, from artisan to artist, which, by the mid 19th century, denoted a middle-class profession. At Gleyre's studio, Renoir found a sympathetic teacher who shared his esteem for fine craftsmanship, whether in the decorative arts or painting. Most importantly, he encountered and befriended young artists Frederic Bazille, Alfred Sisley, and Claude Monet.

Beginning in 1862, Renoir and his fellow students worked together in the forest of Fontainebleu, southeast of Paris. The camaraderie fostered during these youthful excursions is the subject of "The Inn of Mere Antony." As an image of modern life, it is Renoir's first ambitious, multifigured composition, featuring Sisley and two other artist friends, along with the innkeeper, her servant Nana, and Toto, the peg-legged poodle (though Renoir edited out the dog's infirmity). The sparkling dishware and exquisite whites of the starched tablecloth, collars, and cuffs soften the coarseness of this purportedly seedy establishment where, according to the writers Edmond and Jules Goncourt, "wretched painters . . . looking like thuggish workmen" and slatternly, "disreputable" women caroused nightly. Instead, as would be the hallmark for Renoir's pictures in general, the facts of reality are filtered through his sensibilities, eye for decorative detail, and belief in the transformative power of art.

Between 1865 and 1870, the penniless Renoir often shared a studio with Bazille, which also was used by Monet and Sisley. Me utilized as "sitters" those who were available and...