His four best paintings viewed in their historical context, and consideration of the constraints that he painted under. What if?
Impressionism
After Symbolism, he turned to Impressionism, with a wide range of motifs from mountain peaks to smoky steelworks.
A pupil of Hans Gude, he stopped painting for over 10 years. When he resumed, he painted unusual landscapes, peaking in a Symbolist masterpiece of the apocalypse.
The hill that rises from the densely-packed streets of Paris, painted by Jongkind, Alfred Sisley, Ilya Repin, Renoir, and others.
He excelled across all genres, one of few painters of the time to do so. He was, and remains, one of the greatest European painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A short illustrated history of Renoir’s career as a landscape painter, from Barbizon to La Grenouillère, Post-Impressionism and the influence of Corot and Cézanne.
Crippled by his arthritis, he couldn’t stop painting. Landscapes became more radical, and he painted more bathers. Some of Renoir’s last and most radical works.
He falls in love with Cagnes, moving first to a rented flat, then to a house built for him amid ancient olive trees. And he painted furiously.
In which Renoir seeks comfort from his arthritis in the south of France, first in Le Cannet, then Cagnes-sur-Mer. Marvellous landscapes.
He continued to develop his style and technique in landscapes, with a remarkable lightness of touch, and figures shown as cutouts from their background.
