Barbara Ehrlich White - Renoir: An Intimate Biography

Barbara Ehrlich White is Adjunct Professor Emerita of Art History, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. Her Renoir: His Life, Art and Letters (Abrams, 1984) has sold over 125,000 copies. She is also the author of Impressionism in Perspective (Prentice-Hall, 1978) and Impressionists Side by Side (Knopf, 1996). She was encouraged to write the biography of the artist by Renoirs family, and her receipt of the prestigious French honour, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, followed recommendation by the artists great-granddaughter Sophie Renoir.

Other titles of interest published by
Thames & Hudson include:

The Letters of Paul Czanne

In the Gardens of Impressionism

Impressionism: origins, practice, reception

Edgar Degas: Drawings and Pastels

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my husband and best friend, Leon, who, since 1961, has been a constant source of encouragement; to our sons, Joel and David; to our granddaughters, Ella and Nina; and to our daughter-in-law, Heidi. Also, I would like to thank my adviser and mentor, the late Professor Meyer Schapiro who, in 1961, suggested that I make Renoir the subject of my doctoral dissertation; this led to my lifelong study of Renoir.

Map of Paris showing Renoirs studios and apartments

ADDRESSES OF RENOIRS STUDIOS AND APTS:

(1) 23 rue dArgenteuil, studio and apt (1st arr.)

(2) 43 avenue dEylau and apt (16th arr.)

(3) 20 rue Visconti (with Bazille), studio and apt (6th arr.)

(4) 9 rue de la Paix (with Bazille), studio and apt (2nd arr.)

(5) 8 rue des Beaux-Arts (with Bazille), studio and apt (6th arr.)

(6) 5 rue Taranne (between 170 and 260 boulevard Saint-Germain), studio and apt (6th arr.)

(7) Rue du Dragon, studio and apt (6th arr.)

(8) 34 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, studio and apt (6th arr.)

(9) Rue Norvins, studio and apt (18th arr.)

(10) 35 rue Saint-Georges, studio and apt (9th arr.)

(11) 1214 rue Cortot, studio (18th arr.)

(12) 18 rue Houdon, apt (18th arr.)

(13) 35 boulevard Rochechouart, studio (18th arr.)

(14) 11 boulevard de Clichy, studio (9th arr.)

(15) 15 rue Hgsippe-Moreau, studio (18th arr.)

(16) 13 rue Girardon (6 Alle des Brouillards), house (18th arr.)

(17) 7 rue Tourlaque, studio (18th arr.)

(18) 33 rue de la Rochefoucauld, apt (9th arr.)

(19) 64 rue de la Rochefoucauld, studio (9th arr.)

(20) 43 rue Caulaincourt, apt (18th arr.)

(21) 73 rue Caulaincourt, studio (18th arr.)

(22) 57 bis boulevard Rochechouart (studio and apt) (9th arr.)

Map of France showing places associated with Renoir

Dance at Bougival, 1883. 179.7 96 cm (70 37 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Jean Renoirs immensely popular 1958 biography, Renoir, My Father, is historical fiction, written by Renoirs middle son, the internationally renowned director and producer of forty-one films. Here Herbert does not say of his father, but of his fathers paintings. In Renoir, My Father, paintings such as Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party come alive but the character and personality of Renoir remain elusive.

In 1919, when Jean Renoir was twenty-five, his father died aged seventy-eight. Forty years later, in 1958, Jean wrote Renoir, My Father. This loving tribute is censored. Jean and his brothers learned from their fathers will, which they saw only after his death, that Renoir had been a devoted father to a secret illegitimate daughter. Jean also knew that his parents marriage changed from a love affair to estrangement. In Renoir, My Father, Renoirs daughter is not mentioned; Jean portrays his parents marriage as happy. Jeans book has no bibliography and no notes. It quotes two undated letters from Jeans mother to his father. It was not Jeans intention to help the reader understand Renoirs character or personality.

Unlike Renoir, My Father, my biography is the result of fifty-six years of professional concentration on Renoirs paintings, character and personality. Renoir: An Intimate Biography is based on the factual evidence of more than three thousand letters written by, to and about Renoir during his lifetime, as well as diaries and contemporary interviews. This life story is the culmination of my insatiable fascination with the great painter Renoir: a 1961 doctoral dissertation written under the direction of the brilliant Professor Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University; a 1978 anthology, Impressionism in Perspective; a 1984 book, Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, that is still in print; a 1996 book, Impressionists Side by Side, that includes one chapter on Renoir and Monet and one on Renoir and Berthe Morisot; a 2005 chapter in a book on Jean Renoir and Renoir; and articles in scholarly journals about Renoir, as well as more than forty years of university teaching and public lectures about Renoir.

While Jean Renoirs memoir is moving as a loving tribute by a son to his father, Renoir: An Intimate Biography informs the reader that Renoir was an inspiring and heroic individual who overcame daunting obstacles thirty years of poverty followed by thirty years of paralysing illness. Throughout these sixty years Renoir was not only extremely prolific but also amazingly generous.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is one of the greatest and most creative artists who ever lived. He made 4,654 original works of art: 4,019 paintings, 148 pastels, 382 drawings and 105 watercolours.

Since there is no Renoir anthology of letters, in 1961 I began collecting copies of published and unpublished letters by, to and about Renoir written during his lifetime. In writing Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, I knew about 1,000 such letters. Throughout the subsequent thirty years, I have collected copies of an additional 2,000 letters, many of which were unpublished: they came from the heirs of the family of Renoirs illegitimate daughter, Jeanne Trhot; from the heirs of Renoirs son Coco, who inherited the familys letter archive; from the heirs of Renoirs sons Pierre and Jean; from the heirs of Renoirs fellow artists, friends and patrons; from the heirs of Renoirs dealer Durand-Ruel; from the recently opened public archives of Mary Cassatts letters at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Hence, this biography is based on knowledge of the contents of more than 3,000 letters by, to and about Renoir. Embedded in my text are quotations from 1,100 letters, including 452 short quotations from 346 unpublished letters. These letters are powerful time-capsules that enable us to be in direct contact with Renoir and his contemporaries through their words.