Published: April 24, 2008 12:36 pm         

French Impressionist art on exhibit at State Museum

An exhibition featuring artworks by Alexandre Renoir and his ancestor, renowned French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, opened at the Tennessee State Museum April 15.

The exhibit, titled Strokes of Genius: The Works of Pierre-Auguste and Alexandre Renoir —Art from Private Collections will include not only Renoir’s work and that of his great-grandfather, but seldom seen artwork from the private collections of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and friends.This includes Impressionist work from the great artists of that period — Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Jean-François Raffaelli.

Renoir will return to Nashville June 6, where he will be on hand for the final weekend of the Strokes of Genius exhibition, and a walking tour for museum visitors, as well as a workshop for children.

Selected works of the exhibit and works of Renoir will be offered for purchase in a private offering on the evening of June 7 and afternoon of June 8.

Born in 1974 in Cagnes Sur Mer in the south of France, Renoir and his family moved to Canada when he was four. He grew up surrounded by masterful art and creative artists. Renoir’s works on paper and canvas are created with the same sense of ease and grace, which are reminiscent of the beauty and charm of his great-grandfather’s Impressionistic work.

Artistic from a young age, he attended various arts-oriented schools. In addition to his formal education, he also took classes at the Alberta Museum on Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, where he garnered experience in sculpture, pottery, woodworking, stone carving, photography and painting.

Although he was immersed in the arts and culture of his environment, he remained primarily an onlooker until his drawing abilities were tapped by his brother, Emmanuel. During a visit to California, Emmanuel gave Renoir some drawing paper and challenged him to draw with charcoal. The results were impressive, delighting both he and his brother.

From the first sheet, Renoir could naturally draw in a variety of styles; his charcoal drawings exhibit a fluid sense often seen in works of the Impressionist period. Renoir's paintings and drawings can be found in private collections in numerous cities throughout Canada, including Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. Viewers can detect Renoir's great-grandfather’s artistic essence and techniques in the works he is creating today, which are augmented with his own original flair.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Alexandre’s great-grandfather, is perhaps the best-loved of all the Impressionists, because his subjects — angelic children, gorgeous flowers, beautiful scenes, and lovely women — have universal appeal, which he rendered with directness and joy. “Why shouldn't art be pretty?” he said, “There are enough unpleasant things in the world.” As homage to his ancestor, Strokes of Genius will include several seldom seen works from the hand of this great French master.

In transferring their artistic theories to the lithographic stone or metal etching plate, artists such as Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, and Manet attempted to recreate the spontaneity and subtlety of their paintings with the aim of reaching a wider audience. Along with this endeavor came a period of brilliant experimentation that resulted in never before used techniques creating a more painterly print. Influenced by the past titans of etching, such as Rembrandt and Goya, the Impressionist artists gained a new spirit of freedom in the world of printmaking and elevated these works on paper to a higher art form.

Lithographs, sketches and prints from Mary Cassatt, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Jean-Fran Raffaelli, on loan from private collections, will complement this visually stimulating exhibit. Strokes of Genius: The Works of Pierre-Auguste and Alexandre Renoir — Art from Private Collections will offer visitors a glimpse at the Impressionist movement, as characterized by an artist’s ability to render a fleeting moment in time, creating candid compositions, and capturing an ‘impression’ of the ever-changing effects of light and atmospheric conditions. The exhibition opened to the public April 15 and continues through June 8.

The Tennessee State Museum is at Fifth and Deaderick Streets in downtown Nashville. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum which is closed on Mondays is free to the public.

For more information please visit www.tnmuseum.org.