Renoir's Depection of Women in 19th Century Art
Renoir’s Depiction of Women in 19th Century Art
The societal view of men verses women depicted in artwork during the nineteenth century differs from today’s view on the same subject. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), an impressionist painter in the European Arts, began his career in the early 1860’s. Many of the impressionistic painters of this time focused their paintings on landscapes, flower pieces and still-life works. Renoir’s work was mainly focused on portraits, largely female portraits. Renoir’s chosen subject matter, this being women, was odd and difficult for other artists and art critics to grasp at the time due to the lack of importance and significance women held in societal roles. Society continued to be male dominated during Renoir’s time in history. The ways Renoir depicted the concept of a woman through portraits and everyday genres, showed how he placed women on a higher physical and primitive level beyond where culture held the rights of women at the time. In Renoir’s painted works of the female nude, the idea of an ideal image of fantasy is shown. After 1886, Renoir stopped including males as subjects in his paintings. Realizing the overwhelming fact that the century continued to be male dominated, Renoir wanted to show women as his subjects giving them their own sense of individuality. Women of the nineteenth century were viewed as homemakers, not able to perform in society with men. Compared to men, women were seen as being worth almost nothing and were only worthy of bearing children. Stepping out of the norm once again during his time as a painter, Renoir decided to paint a subject that other impressionist artists rejected at the time stating that the idea was too academic: the female nude. After experimenting with the idea of painting the female nude, Renoir decided to make it his new main theme. Renoir chose to use models that he knew in real life. Each of the models was shown as their true self which Renoir
The societal view of men verses women depicted in artwork during the nineteenth century differs from today’s view on the same subject. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), an impressionist painter in the European Arts, began his career in the early 1860’s. Many of the impressionistic painters of this time focused their paintings on landscapes, flower pieces and still-life works. Renoir’s work was mainly focused on portraits, largely female portraits. Renoir’s chosen subject matter, this being women, was odd and difficult for other artists and art critics to grasp at the time due to the lack of importance and significance women held in societal roles. Society continued to be male dominated during Renoir’s time in history. The ways Renoir depicted the concept of a woman through portraits and everyday genres, showed how he placed women on a higher physical and primitive level beyond where culture held the rights of women at the time. In Renoir’s painted works of the female nude, the idea of an ideal image of fantasy is shown. After 1886, Renoir stopped including males as subjects in his paintings. Realizing the overwhelming fact that the century continued to be male dominated, Renoir wanted to show women as his subjects giving them their own sense of individuality. Women of the nineteenth century were viewed as homemakers, not able to perform in society with men. Compared to men, women were seen as being worth almost nothing and were only worthy of bearing children. Stepping out of the norm once again during his time as a painter, Renoir decided to paint a subject that other impressionist artists rejected at the time stating that the idea was too academic: the female nude. After experimenting with the idea of painting the female nude, Renoir decided to make it his new main theme. Renoir chose to use models that he knew in real life. Each of the models was shown as their true self which Renoir
Bibliography: Text Books: Dumas, Ann and Collins, John. Renoir’s Women. Merrell Publishers Limited, 2005 Skira-Venturi, Rosabianca. A Weekend with Renoir. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2005 Renloir, Jean. Renoir. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2005 Copplestone, Trewin. Pierre- Auguste Renoir. Regency House Publishing Limited, 1999 Rayfield, Susan. Pierre- Auguste Renoir. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998 Roberts, Keith. The Great Artists Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1978 Other Sources: Ken Gewertz. Seeing Renoir from Multiple Perspectives (Harvard News Gazette, 2007) Colin Bailey. Renoir’s Portraits: Volume 137 (Burlington Magazine, 1995 )