Pierre-Auguste Renoir was fundamental in the development of the Impressionist style and the inspiration behind one of our newest semi-custom designs for the 2021 wedding season. Renoir was a celebrator of beauty, especially femininity, and in the words of Herbert Read “is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau.”

Renoir was born in 1841 in south-west France. As a boy, he took music lessons until his family faced financial difficulties forcing him to begin is career as a factory porcelain painter. Renoir dreamed of being a professional painter so as a young man he moved to Paris, France to enroll in the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts. Although Renoir frequently did not have money for art supplies, he spent much of his time in the Musée du Lourvre studying the works of Old Masters. At this time, Renoir joined the studio of Charles Gleyre where he developed a friendship with Impressionist painter Claude Monet.

“What seems most significant to me about our movement is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.”
– Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Straying away from his academic training, Renoir began to adopt Impressionist painting techniques using broad, loose brushstrokes, a bright color palette, and saturated colors. Renoir spent much of his time painting next to Claude Monet beside the water at La Genouillère just outside of Paris. Characteristic of the Impressionist style, Renoir and Monet painted en plein air, or outdoors, where they were able to paint diretly from nature rather than in a studio.

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Renoir’s work featured figures in fashionable attire, depicitions of life in 20th century life in Paris, and beautiful, lush French gardens. Our semi-custom design is inspired by Renoir’s work featuring an organic, garden wreath and French crest wax seal.

Renoir was extremely passionate about his career as an artist but in his later life developed severe arthritis. Depsite the pain he suffered, Renoir continued to paint but with a brush tied to his wrist. Shortly before he died in 1919, Renoir was able to visit the Musée du Louvre one last time where he was able to see his work now displayed next to the Old Masters he had long idolized.

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Interested in the Renoir design for your wedding invitation suite? Submit a request for a quote here! Love reading all about the inspiration behind our work? Read all about the Degas suite here and the Monet suite here.