Renoir Landscapes Exhibit

Philadelphia Museum of Art is Renoir Landscapes Exhibit Only U.S. Stop

by Judith Panasik
December 21, 2007

Art can be defined as an attempt to imitate nature or to produce a sense of beauty. It’s sometimes a historical marker whether it is a painting on a cave wall or a Pulitzer Prize winning photo capturing the emotion of an event.

Paintings by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir have done both. Although better none for pieces that portray a day in a Paris park, a couple dancing, or people sharing a simple moment, Renoir like other artists of his time was also known for his landscape painting. Paintings that color and brushstrokes capture the simple moments and soft nature of the time.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is the only United States stop for the Renoir Landscapes: 1865-1883 exhibit that was put together in collaboration with the National Gallery London, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. The exhibit has several known pieces and many new discoveries.

The presentation is not only an amazing and moving visual exhibit of the French Countryside and the people of the late 1800’s, it’s a history lesson in itself.

As always the Philadelphia Museum of Art puts on an exhibit that is educational and poignant. A headphone set takes you through the exhibit giving you a background of the paintings and of Renoir.

You learn the part technology plays in that time period and the evolution of the painter’s work. Through the ability to put oil paints in a tube artists were able to take their canvases into the countryside and out of the cities. The development of the railroad also allowed for this. And with Renoir’s new found financial means he was able to travel through Europe and to Algeria where he was inspired and painted many of the pieces found in the exhibit.

But of all the pieces the one that makes me think the most is one where Renoir painted Monet painting a picture in a piece appropriately titled “Monet painting in his garden (c.1873).” All I could think looking at the piece was did these men have any idea at the time what they would represent and the fame their names would come to hold? Was the painting done almost as a joke like taking a picture of someone taking a picture of you? And the humor that goes along with the painting.

Renoir holds a deep meaning to me. It was the softness, the simpleness and beauty in one of his paintings that turned me onto French Impressionism. I have traveled to Paris to visit the D’Orsey that holds many of his works. But the exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art gave me a new perspective and a different sense of the beauty within Renoir’s paintings.

The exhibit not only takes you through Renoirs transformation in landscape work but also offers photos and drawings of the day that add to the background of the time.

Don’t miss the chance to see a once in a lifetime opportunity for an exhibit that will be leaving Philadelphia after January 6, 2008. Discount travel opportunities are available through Amtrak along with hotel packages through the museum. To find out more about packages and tickets you can visit the museum website at www.philamuseum.org , or by calling 215-684-7863.

While at the museum stop over to see the Antonio Mancini Nineteenth-Century Italian Master exhibit. A little know Italian artist, who at the turn of the twentieth century was internationally celebrated. At the age of sixteen he was painting with the skill of a seasoned artist. His works were mainly portraits. His style is described in a catalogue from the 1899 Venice Biennale as “An audacious, vigorous technique that is hostile to tradition and practice.” Going on to describe the violence and power of his use of color and light.

Taking a look at Mancini’s paintings he seems to be telling us something. His images are simple yet deep, drawing you into the person on the canvas. A simple boy standing with his arms crossed is saying something more.

But the best sense of who Mancini was and how he saw the world that he put on his canvas can best be described in his own words, “Vulgarity is often the daughter of poverty, and poverty has always been my closest relative. Since I was a boy she took me by the hand and accompanied me from garret to garret to suffer all the sorrows of this world. The filthiest of women carried me even to the mad house where I remained…nine …eleven months. I no longer know. But I have always worked, even inside there.”