Renoir breakfast of rowers. The Rowers 'Breakfast at Maison Fournaise The Rowers' Breakfast reflects the mixture of classes in French society
Breakfast of the rowers. Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The Rowers' Breakfast is one of the most famous works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and one of the most famous outdoor picnic images in art history. The picture shows a joyful moment in a circle of friends, communicating in a relaxed atmosphere. However, few people know a number of facts related to this work of the cult impressionist.
1. The theme of the painting corresponds to the changes in early impressionism 
Landscape near Kanye.
In the early days of Impressionism, urban scenes were one of the dominant themes in paintings. By 1881, when Renoir finished his masterpiece, the image of suburban landscapes became more popular in Impressionism. The scene depicted in Rowers' Breakfast was painted about 30 minutes by train from the hustle and bustle of Paris.
2. The painting reflected a new understanding of the depth of the image 
Ball at the Moulin de la Galette.
About four years before the Rowers' Breakfast, Renoir painted Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, which also depicts a public picnic in Paris. But, in contrast to this picture, in the "Rowers' Breakfast" the boundaries are more clearly defined. Also, due to the greater attention to the contours of the images, the illusion of volume and depth of the image is created.
3. "Rowers' breakfast" 
The dimensions of the painting are 173x130 cm.
The Rowers' Breakfast is one of Renoir's greatest paintings. Its dimensions are 173x130 cm.
4. The plot of the picture was inspired by a popular holiday destination in Paris 
House Fournez restaurant.
The Dom Fournaise restaurant in Chatou (not far from Paris) overlooking the Seine River was a favorite place among people of all social status. As shown in Rowers' Breakfast, businessmen, socialites, seamstresses and artists were frequent customers of this restaurant. Renoir also loved this place very much and depicted many of his acquaintances on it.
5. The restaurant can be visited today 
House Fournaise today is a museum, an artist's workshop and a restaurant.
The Fournez restaurant closed in 1906. But, almost a century later, in 1990, it was completely restored, after which the restaurant regained its former popularity. In addition, "House Fournaise" now boasts a museum and a workshop for artists with Impressionist reproductions.
6. In the picture you can find Renoir's closest friends 
Artist Caillebotte talks to actress Angel Lego and journalist Maggiolo.
The artist took turns inviting his friends to the restaurant to pose for him. In the background, in a top hat sits Charles Ephrussi, an art collector and historian. He talks to the poet Jules Laforgue. On the right are Renoir's friends Eugene Pierre Lestrengue (employee of the Ministry of the Interior) and Paul Lot (journalist), who flirts with the famous actress Jeanne Samary. In the lower right corner, Renoir's wealthy patron and fellow artist Caillebotte is shown talking with actress Angel Lego and Italian journalist Maggiolo.
7. A girl with a puppy became Renoir's wife and a model for his paintings 
Renoir has repeatedly portrayed his wife in paintings.
Alina Sharigo, who worked as a seamstress and occasionally worked as a model for artists, began a passionate affair with an impressionist artist. Although they had their first son in 1885, the couple did not officially marry until 1890. In total, Renoir and Charigot had three children. The artist has repeatedly depicted his wife in paintings such as "Dance in the Country", "Breakfast of the Rowers", "Madame Renoir with the Dog" and "Motherhood".
8. The painting shows the family of the restaurant owner 
Daughter of the restaurant owner Alfonsinka Fournez.
Alphonse Fournaise opened the restaurant in 1860. Twenty years later, Renoir portrayed Alphonse in the painting "The Rowers' Breakfast" with the children. The girl who leaned on the railing is the daughter of the restaurant owner, Alfonsinka Fournez. And her brother, Alphonse Furnaise Jr., can be found in the lower left corner of the painting.
9. Local merry fellow 
The former mayor of colonial Saigon, Baron Raoul Barbier.
In the painting, you can find the former mayor of colonial Saigon, Baron Raoul Barbier, who was the soul of any company. He sits in a bowler hat and tells Miss Fournaise something.
10. Woman with a glass - famous actress and model 
French actress Ellen Andre.
Ellen Andre is depicted right in the center of the picture, as if isolated from other people and does not talk to anyone. The French actress is best remembered as a model for impressionist painters. In addition to Rowers' Breakfast, she was depicted in the paintings by Edouard Manet "Plum" and Edgar Degas "Absinthe".
11. "The Rowers' Breakfast" reflects the confusion of classes in French society 
The birth of a supernova society (based on the Breakfast of the rowers).
Men and women from different walks of life, vacationing together, clearly show how at that time in French culture there was a mixture of different social classes and a new bourgeoisie was created.
12. The picture has become popular since its premiere 
Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The Rowers' Breakfast debuted in 1882 at the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition, where three critics commented that it was the best painting in the exhibition.
13. Renoir's masterpiece was sold to America 
Paul Durand-Ruel.
For decades, the Rowers' Breakfast was part of the private collection of the patron saint Renoir Paul Durand-Ruel. But after his death in 1922, the sons of Durand-Ruel put the canvas up for sale. It was acquired by the American art collector Duncan Phillips for $ 125,000. Since then, the Phillips collection can be seen in Washington.
14. Phillips was literally obsessed with Renoir's painting 
The first American museum of modern art.
Phillips first saw the painting "The Rowers' Breakfast" at an exhibition in New York. She impressed him so deeply that the collector literally became obsessed with the canvas. When Phillips heard that "The Rowers' Breakfast" was put up for sale, he made an urgent trip to France, where he spent the entire annual budget allocated for works of art on the painting.
15. A famous Hollywood actor fantasized about stealing a painting 
Actor Edward G. Robinson.
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, actor Edward G. Robinson became famous for his roles as gangsters in films such as Key Largo (1948) and Little Caesar (1931). Offscreen, he was an avid art fan. Robinson once said : “For over thirty years now, I have been visiting a museum in Washington DC from time to time to look at a painting by Renoir. Time after time I invent ways to steal this painting from the museum. "
16. Nothing changes 
The picture still excites the minds today.
One of the most famous paintings by Renoir "Breakfast of the rowers" 1881
The painting was painted on the terrace of the Maison Fournaise restaurant, fashionable in those years, located on a small island in the middle of the Seine near the city of Chatou, near Paris. The Fournez family also owned a small tourist hotel and boat rental. Parisians flocked to the House of Fournaise to rent skiffs (and rowing was extremely popular in those years), to have fun, flirt, eat deliciously and stay overnight.
It was a place where, far from the bustle of the city, the most diverse audience spent their time - businessmen, society ladies, artists, actresses, writers, critics, seamstresses, saleswomen and aristocrats. In the evenings on the terrace, from which a beautiful view of the river opened up, dancing to the piano was arranged. It was here, on the terrace, that Renoir portrayed his friends and acquaintances with whom he constantly communicated during that period.
In a letter from 1880, Renoir writes: “Now I cannot leave Chatou, because I have not yet finished my work. It would be very nice if you could come here and dine with me. I assure you you will not regret this trip. This is one of the most charming places around Paris. "
Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Courbet loved to visit Maison Fournaise. Berthe Morisot had a small summer house nearby in Bougival. Edgar Degas was a passionate oarsman, frequent the Maison Fournaise and knew the family well. Alfonsina Fournez, a favorite model of regular artists, subsequently invited Degas to her wedding. The beauty of this place was admired not only by the artists. Among his admirers was Guy de Maupassant. He often rented a room on the second floor of the hotel, and the restaurant itself brought out in the short story "Friend of Paul" under the name Grillon's restaurant
DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURE.
This picture can rightfully be called a group portrait. A joyful, relaxed atmosphere reigns, there is no ostentation, everyone is in natural, random poses. Behind the railing, you can see dense greenery, behind which the Seine River looks out.
In contrast to the "Ball at the Moulin de la Galette", the scale of the figures is enlarged here, they are all portrait and recognizable and constitute the main content of the picture. The landscape surrounding the terrace where friends have gathered, the greenery around, the Seine seen through it with running sailing ships and boats make up the atmosphere of the picture, its joyful background.
On it are written all the participants in the meeting who had gathered at the tables set for wine and fruit in the Fourneza restaurant in Shatu. He himself stands here, his back and hands on the terrace railing, a sturdy, confident man, wearing a sleeveless shirt that bares his strong arms.
In front of him, at a table, sits a charming girl, who has put a small fluffy dog in front of her on the table and is having fun playing with it. Renoir introduced the audience to Alina Sherigo, who at that time was a little over twenty years old and with whom he would finally connect his life precisely in 1881, although the official registration of their marriage will take place only in 1890.
In the painting "The Rowers' Breakfast" Alina Sherigo, in her blooming age, who is not yet completely connected with Renoir, delights him with her youth and carelessness. She was almost 20 years younger than the artist. Aline liked to pose for the artist, and from the first days she felt attracted to him. The convinced bachelor Renoir was also fascinated by the girl and confessed: "I want to pat her on the back like a kitten."
Becoming the artist's wife, Aline managed to make his life easier, protecting Renoir from everything that could interfere with his work. Poor or rich, famous or unknown, it didn't matter to her. Aline quickly gained universal respect. And even the misogynist Degas, seeing her once at one of the exhibitions, said: "She looks like a queen who has visited wandering acrobats." His wife gave Renoir two beautiful sons, one of whom, Jean, became a famous film director, and the younger Pierre, a wonderful artist. The union with Aline not only brought peace to Renoir, enriched his emotional world, but also led to a rethinking of his art.
Opposite her, saddling a chair, facing Alina, sat Caillebotte, an engineer, collector, amateur artist, passionate rower. He helped the Impressionists a lot, collected a collection of their works and bequeathed it to the Louvre. He asked Renoir to fulfill his will.
Next to Caillebotte, Renoir wrote the Italian journalist Maggiolo. And behind them, standing and sitting, Baron Barbier, who recently returned from Indochina, according to Jean Renoir, who took the trouble to collect models for this picture, Ephrussi, Lot, Lestrenge, Jeanne Samary, model Angel, who was going to get married at that time, and children the owner of the restaurant Alfonsina and Alphonse Fournez. Young Alfonsina Fournez looks especially charming in a yellow straw hat, painted against a background of bright greenery.
There are many light, white and yellow tones in the picture, which, together with blue, violet and dark colors, create an overall flavor.
At the end of the century, fashion changed and the boat was supplanted by the bicycle. The restaurant gradually began to decline and in 1906. Alfonsina was forced to close it. She died in 1937, at the age of 91.
A group of friends are enjoying breakfast on the sunlit terrace of an open-air café along the river a few kilometers from Paris. The painting was painted in the Fourneza restaurant, located on an islet, in Chatou, on the Seine. It was a place where high society people, poets, actors, intellectuals and rowing enthusiasts loved to meet. Just like Renoir, here is conveyed a free, lively atmosphere that arises in the company of Parisians who have left to relax in the fresh air. Very modern in content, this picture, at the same time, clearly echoes the canvases of the old masters, depicting feasts, in particular with the works of the 16th century Venetian artist Veronese. Despite the fact that the picture conveys a sense of spontaneity of the moment, Renoir carefully built its composition over several months, inviting models (his friends and people specially invited for this) to Chatou, who posed for him separately.
(1880-1881) 130 x 173 cm Phillips Collection, Washington
Pictures depicting Parisians vacationing outside the city allowed Renoir and other impressionists to combine interest in scenes of modern life with work in the open air. Renoir and his friend Monet even earlier, back in 1869, painted Parisians vacationing, sitting side by side on the banks of the Paddling Pool in Bougival, one and a half kilometers from Chatou. And in the future, the scenes of recreation on the river continued to inspire the artist.
Many suburban recreational areas such as Chatou (where "The Rowers' Breakfast" was written) became easily accessible to Parisians with the development of the rail network in the middle of the century.
By 1880, Chatou had become a favorite destination for outdoor activities, where not only wealthy Parisians, but also working people came for weekends. Different towns located on the banks of the Seine near Paris provided different types of water recreation. So, for example, Argenteuil, where Monet settled in 1873, turned over time into a real yacht club, so many of this artist's canvases feature boats under snow-white sails. Rowing enthusiasts gathered mainly in Asnieres and Chatou, and we find boats with rowers in the paintings of Renoir and Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), who painted the same scenes in completely different ways. Renoir's canvases convey to the viewer the languid laziness of the weekend spent on the river, while Caillebotte Caillebotte, who himself was a good rower and yachtsman, we can see in Renoir's painting. He sits in the foreground right, wearing a T-shirt and a traditional straw boater hat.
Who is who on this celebration of life - Wikipedia knows.
We wander between different judgments: there is nothing that we desire freely, unconditionally and constantly.
In early 1880, Renoir broke his right arm. He did not grieve over this. He had a happy character, he always believed that there is a silver lining. In addition, he liked to try his hand at various techniques, in various painting techniques, so he decided to take advantage of the accident. In February, he happily reported to Theodore Dure: “I enjoy working with my left hand. It turns out very funny and even better than what I wrote right. I think I broke my arm very opportunely, it helps me to cultivate. Pangloss was right. " Renoir continued to prepare work for the next Salon. In addition to "Catchers of Seashells", he was going to send there a canvas, which he sketched impromptu when the model Angel, posing for him, dozed off during the session. The dark-haired Montmartre flower girl, Angel, led a frankly dissolute life. She grew up among prostitutes, pimps and thieves and was guided by one single rule of conduct - to enjoy life. If Angel's mother scolded Angel when she returned home in the morning with a rumpled face and circles under her eyes, it was only so that Angel would understand: "All this is exhausting!" It was so exhausting that Angel often fell asleep posing for Renoir. The artist painted it in one of those minutes, when the girl dozed off, sitting in a red armchair - Angel's chest is half-naked, a gray cat is on her knees.
For several months, another girl, his neighbor on the rue Saint-Georges Aline Charigot, who worked in a sewing workshop, posed for Renoir. Renoir met Alina at the dairy, where he had breakfast and dinner. The good-natured owner of the dairy, Madame Camille, was unusually caring for Renoir and often lamented because of his thinness. "It's just a pity to look," she sighed and added: "He needs to get married." Madame Camilla had two daughters of marriageable age.
Alina Charigot, like Madame Camille, was from the Department of L "About. This explains the girl's friendship with the mistress of the dairy, where she met the artist. In the fall, upon returning from Vargemont, Renoir took Alina to Chatou and portrayed her in his painting The Boatmen: Alina in a red dress sits on the grassy bank of the Seine next to Edmond, who is wearing a white shirt.
Aline was the daughter of a winegrower who did not get along with his wife and, a few years before the war of 1870, suddenly left his home in Essois, a small town between Troyes and Chatillon-sur-Seine, and moved to the United States. His wife Emely became a seamstress in Paris. Convinced that her outlook on life is the only correct one, Emely, apparently, did not have an easy character. "Bore," Renoir politely assessed her. One day she came with her daughter to the studio and, standing in front of the easel, looked at the painting she had begun with a contemptuous glance: “And this is how you earn your living? Well, some are lucky ”.
Emely, like Renoir, was about forty, Alina was to be twenty-one in May.
Well-built blonde, Alina, according to the artist, was very “cozy”. “I want to pat her on the back like a kitten,” said the enchanted Renoir. For her part, Alina really liked to pose for the artist. This young peasant woman, whom the owner of the sewing workshop advised to find a "decent party", to marry "rich and not too young", did not look at anyone except her neighbor, and although he met the second condition, he was by no means rich , neither handsome: sunken cheeks, face twitching, sparse beard, bushy eyebrows, stooped back. Alina did not understand painting. And yet, watching Renoir wield her brushes, she experienced a surprisingly exciting feeling of fullness of life. She had some kind of vague, unconscious, but overwhelming feeling that, being next to him, she was in contact with something most important, authentic, which she could not express in words with something fundamentally different from that, what she had to meet until now. This man, who looked at her, and then applied paints to a blank canvas, to everyone - both with his craft and way of life, and the way he looked at people and surrounding objects - was sharply different from the everyday world. And the keys to this world did not fit him. When he finished writing, he lifted his legs, put them on a chair and, twice nervously rubbing his nose with his index finger - it was one of his tics - he looked at the canvas, looked at the model and smiled. He smiled like a contented child. "Marry a rich man ..." Guided by the faithful instinct inherent in some women and her inherent thoughtfulness, which makes it possible to distinguish the ostentatious from the genuine, Alina felt from the very first days that she was attracted to the artist. She did not understand painting, but she realized that Renoir is Renoir. This was an immutable truth to her. If Alina had to make a choice, she made it.
On April 1, a new, fifth exhibition of the Impressionists was opened on the mezzanine of one of the houses on Pyramid Street. But could it be called an exhibition of the Impressionists? Following Renoir, Sisley, Cezanne, the mastermind of the exhibitions, Claude Monet, broke away from the group this time. Of the former participants on the rue Pyramids, only Pissarro, Degas, Berthe Morisot and Caillebotte were represented. But Degas sought and attracted new artists, whom he patronized. At last year's exhibition, at his insistence, paintings by the American Mary Cassatt, Forena, and the Venetian Zandomeneghi were already shown. This year, he demanded that Rafaelli participate in the exhibition, and agreed to accept quite a few works by Pissarro's friend Paul Gauguin. Monet was strongly against these nominations; their participation in the exhibition probably played a role in the fact that Monet established himself in the intention to follow Renoir's example and send the paintings to the Salon. He presented two canvases to the jury. One was rejected, the other was accepted. It was a landscape - a view of Lavacour, a small village in the Seine valley opposite Veteil, where the artist had lived for two years. There have been changes in Monet's life. His wife, unable to withstand long-term poverty, died before she was thirty. And Ernest Hoschede's wife, having left her husband, became the artist's friend.
Like Renoir, Monet became close to the Charpentier couple. Madame Charpentier followed with unremitting attention the success of the artists she supported. A few months earlier, Renoir, who continued to work for her (sometimes he even painted the menus for her dinner parties), decorated the stairs of her mansion with two panels - one depicting a woman, the other a man. (Regarding these panels, the Alsatian Enner said to Renoir: "Osen, osen karacho, only a relatively small confusion: the man's hair is thicker and darker than a woman's!") In April, an exhibition of Edouard Manet was organized in the La Vie modern gallery in June - Claude Monet. "Frenzied advertising," - said Degas, indignant at Monet. He completely broke with the "apostate."
Such courtesies did not help to restore harmony between quarreling friends. Renoir believed that he was not treated in a friendly way, having ceased to invite him to group exhibitions. In addition, he, like Monet, did not at all approve of new participants. He never recognized either Gauguin's painting or Raphaeli's painting. About Rafaelli, someone said to Renoir: "You should have liked him, he portrayed the poor." “This is what makes me doubtful,” Renoir replied. - In painting, the poor do not exist for me. As, however, in life, ”- he added after a pause.
It was quite obvious that the Impressionists were going through a critical moment, and the same Albert Wolff was ready to read the waste from them.
“Why does a person like Degas still hang around with this multitude of mediocrities? - asked the critic of Le Figaro in the April 9 issue. - Why doesn't he follow the example of Manet, who has long since broken with the Impressionists? He's tired of dragging the tail of this outrageous school with him forever.
But the critical period for the Impressionists came when Durand-Ruel dawned on the hope of renewing his purchases again. The art lover Feder, director of the General Union, a Catholic bank founded a year and a half earlier, came to the merchant's aid by advancing large sums of money. However, the crisis of impressionism was inevitable. The development of trends in art is inherent in the same organic, inevitable patterns, as well as the development of an individual at certain stages of its fate. The groups that represent these areas are always the field of influence of unequal and most often contradictory forces, reflecting passions, selfish aspirations, preconceived opinions and various, more or less pronounced tendencies of the individuals that make up these groups. The balance of power is achieved only for a very short time. The need to unite in the face of a hostile environment v a common search for the sake of a common struggle unites stronger than an inner affinity. The struggle of the Impressionists did not end, but now it has changed its form, acquired a more individual character. Each played his own game, moved his pieces. The point was not only that the interests of the players no longer coincided or even contradicted each other, but also that Impressionism obeyed the universal law of life. Born from the collections of artists that huddled in the café Herbois around Manet, it grew, established itself in basic lines, and then experienced a period of prosperity. But those whose enthusiasm created it, as they moved forward along their thorny path, refined their feelings and perfected their craft. Impressionism, this spring of painting, was their youth. They have now reached maturity. And in the end, at the end of their passionate joint searches, they all, in turn, acquired or acquired their unique individuality. As recently as yesterday, in Argenteuil or La Grenouier, Monet and Renoir could work side by side, following general formulas in painting. Now this time is a thing of the past. The Impressionists parted ways. Like children who grew up in the same family but became adults, each of them found themselves face to face with their own problems. Spiritually connected by what once united them and made them what they became, from now on they had to remain themselves first of all, and only those of them who managed at this time or later to find their own path in painting became great artists ... “Art is individual, like love,” said Vlaminck. The group was breaking up. Impressionism split like ripe fruit.
Zola, who did not judge painting very shrewdly, but instinctively grasped the changes taking place in large groups, the laws of social development (his novels were not so much psychological as sociological), realized earlier than many other contemporaries that impressionism was nearing decline. Soon he had the opportunity to speak out on this topic, since Renoir and Monet turned to him for support. In this year's Salon, the paintings were hung in accordance with the new rules - based on the four categories into which the exhibitors were divided (out-of-competition, taken in addition to the decision of the jury, taken by the decision of the jury and foreigners). The works of both "defectors" were hanged at the most disadvantageous places. Renoir and Monet protested, as did many other artists; it was quite obvious that the organizers wanted to maintain a "monopoly on the best seats" for a "select few." Renoir drew up a draft of the allocation of seats, which Muhrer published in La Cronique de Tribuneau on 23 May. But the circle of readers of this newspaper was very narrow, and both artists remembered Zola. Who, if not their old friend in the Herbois cafe, could have brought public opinion to this question? From now on, each printed performance by Zola became a literary event. Evenings in Medan, a collection of short stories published by Charpentier on May 1 and in which Zola appeared surrounded by his closest students, caused no less scandalous talk than his novels. Renoir and Monet wrote a letter to the head of the Department of Fine Arts and through Cézanne gave a copy to the writer to publish in Le Voltaire, where he collaborated, with their comments in which he would emphasize "the importance of the Impressionists."
Zola fulfilled the artists' request, but not quite in the way that Renoir and Monet wanted. Monet's exhibition at La Vie Art Nouveau opened on 7 June. Answering the questions of the journalist, Monet strongly expressed his disagreement with those of his comrades who saw in him only an apostate ... “I stayed and will forever remain an impressionist,” Monet said. “But now I very rarely meet my fellow men and women. The small temple has now turned into a banal school, the doors of which are open for the first mazila that comes along ”. This inappropriate statement appeared in La Vie Modern on June 12th. A week later, in the issue of June 18, Le Voltaire began publishing a series of articles by Zola - there were four of them - Naturalism in the Salon, where the author, in his own way fulfilling the request of Renoir and Monet, raised the question of the relationship between independent art, the official Salon and impressionism.
The Impressionist group, according to Zola, "seems to have outlived their days." The paths of those who were part of it parted. Why? Because their exhibitions were built on a false basis and nothing can replace the Salon. The Impressionist exhibitions caused a lot of noise, but "it was just noise, a Parisian hype that the wind would blow away." Of course, people of art dream of "doing without the state, being independent." But, unfortunately, this freedom does not correspond to the "morals of the public." That is why, under these conditions, it is possible to "give battle" only in the Salon itself "in bright sunlight." It is great courage to remain on the battlefield, even under the most adverse conditions. Therefore, Monet, who has been rushing about in the void for ten years now, did the right thing by returning to the Salon, like Renoir. The only artist who benefited from the exhibitions was Degas: his paintings, "so refined and refined," passed unnoticed "in the hustle and bustle of the Salon", and "in a chamber setting" all their merits became apparent.
Moreover, Zola added, "that several hastily crafted works of other Impressionists emphasized the magnificent completeness of his work." For the novelist from Medan, for the man who made the word "nulla dies sine linea" his motto, there was no doubt - the fault of the Impressionists that they did not work much, they "deserved ... attacks, because they were limited to unfinished sketches." Zola could not more clearly reveal his lack of understanding of impressionism. If he once spoke in defense of Manet and the Batignolles, it was more for the sake of the struggle itself than out of artistic convictions. He never understood what the painting of his friends was, in fact, he was attracted to academic "completeness". This misunderstanding prevented him from grasping the meaning of the event that he noticed. The collapse of the group marked the failure of impressionism for Zola, and he could not hide this conclusion of his. Contrary to his most friendly intentions, he kind of summed up the collapse of the Impressionist painters. Trying to appreciate their contribution to art, he spoke of their "significant" influence, defended against the widespread accusations of quackery "these harsh and convinced observers", these "have-nots, dying toil from poverty and fatigue." And yet, the successful writer was convinced that his former comrades would never be able to assert themselves decisively and finally. “The whole trouble is,” he wrote, “that none of the members of this group was able to powerfully and irrefutably embody in his work a new formula, scattered over many works. This formula exists, fragmented to infinity, but nowhere, none of them has it fully embodied by the hand of the master ... The artists turned out to be weaker than the creations that they are trying to create, they stumble and cannot find the words. " This is why, in the end, the Impressionists did not win. They are "too easily satisfied" with what they have done and "demonstrate imperfection, lack of logic, exaggeration, powerlessness." “We need to create major works,” Zola argued, “and then, even if they were rejected for decades in a row, and then hung in bad places for ten years in a row, they would still ultimately gain the success they deserve. So much the worse for the weak, who are defeated and trampled by the strong! »The Impressionists did not create significant works - otherwise they would have inevitably triumphed. Is this not what the success of "Trap", "Nana", "Evenings in Medan" irrefutably testifies to? “But it doesn't matter,” the novelist concluded with a kind of playful indifference, “let them better work for the glory of modern naturalism, then they will be at the head of the movement and begin to play a noticeable role in our modern school of painting.”
The Impressionists reacted differently to Zola's claim that they had failed. But one way or another, they all understood from now on that they could no longer count on the support of the head of the naturalistic school, the one who in the past so vehemently spoke out in defense of independent painting. One gets more success in life, another less, and this different measure of success, revealing, emphasizing what lies in the depths of the soul of everyone, what distinguishes people from each other, also plays a significant role in the process of separation that occurs within the group.
the 14 th of July. This year, for the first time, was celebrated the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, a day that has now become a national holiday. A law was passed on amnesty for convicted members of the Commune. After numerous upheavals experienced by the Third Republic, and an attempt to restore the monarchy, which completely failed when Marshal McMahon had to resign from the presidency in the 1879 elections in the Senate, the Republic was strengthened. A new chapter in its history has begun for France. On the streets decorated in honor of July 14, the first issue of the newspaper "L Entrancian" of Rochefort, who managed to escape from New Caledonia, was sold; flags and banners were fluttering in the wind in the middle of a sea of flowers. the collection, now numbering about a hundred works, gave his friends a farewell dinner in his flag-decorated and brightly lit pastry shop, attended by Renoir, Sisley, Guillaumene, Dr. Gachet, Cabaner ...
Money worries lost their urgency for Renoir. He wrote letters to Madame Charpentier like this: “This morning I started the portrait. In the evening I will start another and, perhaps, soon I will start the third. " Thus, he achieved what he was striving for. His fame as a portrait painter - the author of women's and children's portraits - grew all the time. Ephrussi even got him an order from the family of the banker Caen: Renoir had to write to his daughters.
But life, like the sea, where waves run over one another, does not know rest. Renoir's soul was invaded by new worries. The crisis of impressionism rebounded on the artist. The confused Renoir found himself alone with himself. Renoir was never a man of theory. His creative path was a winding line. In this changeability, of course, the richness of his imagination was reflected, but through the joy of creativity his hesitations, doubts, anxieties were also felt. And was he ever sure of anything? Now this uncertainty has worsened. She tormented, confused. In addition, a different kind of confusion joined her - this time in the realm of the senses, but no less painful.
Treasured his bachelor habits, jealously guarding his independence, Renoir never imagined that any woman could become a friend of his life, constantly be with him, and therefore he was frightened that young Alina Sharigo began to occupy such a large place in his thoughts ...
How good the afternoon hours were with Alina at La Grenouyer, where she learned to swim. How sweet are the summer evenings, when dancing couples whirled in a whirlwind of waltz to the sound of the piano on the terrace of Father Fournaise's restaurant ...
Renoir wrote, doubting himself, peering with displeasure at his canvases. What has led his twenty years of work, all this search, all this impressionism? What are the "theories" of the Impressionists? "You come to nature with all your theories, and nature throws them away." The impressionists brush aside black. And Renoir already used black color in the portrait of Madame Charpentier with children: "Black is the king of flowers!" Only plein air? But Corot said that “in nature you never know what you will succeed in”, that the work must be “carried out through the workshop”. And there is still a form! A form that the Impressionists neglect too much. This is especially noticeable when painting nude. Renoir sometimes began to doubt even whether he could write and draw at all.
Alina Sharigo ... Does he know how to write and draw ... In choosing a profession, people are more or less guided by their personal tastes, but if later they have to do one thing and not another, this is usually determined by everyday accidents, of which destinies are woven. You have to think about making money, and the vain - about how to shine. This is partly what the human comedy is based on, and partly on the play of passions. But a man like Renoir is created from a different test. For him, painting is an organic, vital need. It secretes painting like a silkworm its thread. Since he, like all other people, needs to buy food, clothes, pay for housing, he must try to get money for his labor. But for him, money can never be the goal. It makes no difference to him whether he will receive a little more or less money if he can satisfy the need that dictates all his actions. It is this need, and it alone, that has determined the artist's existence for years. The thread coiled into a cocoon. In this artless life, as if subordinated to one feeling, there is no place for a woman - a woman who would have not only a body, but also a soul. The bachelor position naturally corresponded to such a life. Alina Sharigo ... What confusion, what difficulties she would have introduced into the simple everyday life of Renoir! And yet, these eyes, this sweet face, the peace that he experiences in her presence. How he wants her to be there, and how afraid of it! Her face haunts him. How he tries to avoid her intimacy! "Oh, these women, it's better to paint their portraits!" But Renoir is no longer sure if he can write. The soil is slipping from under his feet. His life is crumbling. "He himself doesn't know where to go."
Excited, tired, Renoir worked little and badly. He began to study English: he wanted to go to Dure, who at that time, at the beginning of 1881, was living in London. Travel, move from place to place! Since movement always leads somewhere, people hope that it will lead to the goal, finding the lost peace. But who, if not Cezanne, an eternal wanderer, who never sat still, who traveled from Aix to Paris and back, and in Paris moved from one apartment to another, who, if not Cezanne, whose pastel portrait was painted by Renoir at this time (a balding skull, the gaze of a man, seized by one persistent dream, turned into himself) knew that no wanderings would allow a person to get away from himself, at best, they would only distract him for a while. Renoir wrote to Dure that he would come to see the "pretty English women." And suddenly in February, having finished the portraits of the "Caen girls" (whether they were good or bad, he did not know himself) and leaving Ephrussi with the trouble of sending them to the Salon ("one less concern"), he left for a country that at one time fascinated Delacroix and about which Lestrenge had told him more than once, to Algeria.
Unfortunately, when he arrived in Algeria in early March, the weather was cloudy. It was raining. “And yet it is magnificent here, nature is incredibly rich ... And the greens are juicy and fresh! "The new vegetation for him - palms, orange trees and fig trees - delighted Renoir, and the Arabs in their white wool burnuses often struck with the nobility of their posture.
Finally the sun came out. The city in which "everything is white: burnuses, walls, minarets and a road" - sparkled under a cloudless sky. Delighted by the sight that opened up to him, Renoir began to work again. He pulled himself together, tried to comprehend his work. “I decided to stay away from the artists, in the sun, to think calmly,” he soon wrote to Durand-Ruel, and from his tone one can feel that his soul has become calmer. - I think I reached the end and found it. I may be wrong, but that would surprise me a lot. "
Durand-Ruel, who sent Renoir a letter, tried to dissuade him from participating in the Salon. Now that the merchant had money and was once again able to actively defend the Impressionists, he considered it highly desirable that the group regain a semblance of agreement. Even at a time when Renoir hesitated, not knowing where to go - to England or to Algeria, Caillebotte and Pissarro were discussing the issue of the sixth exhibition of the Impressionists, which was supposed to open in April. Caillebotte accused Degas of having "split the group." Due to the fact that Degas did not occupy a proper "prominent place", "this man has become embittered ... he is angry with the whole world," wrote Caillebotte to Pissarro. “He almost has a persecution mania. Isn't he trying to convince those around him that Renoir has Machiavellian plans? Do you have these people? " himself. ”Forcing to accept the works of his wards, such as Zandomeneghi and Rafaelli, to the exhibitions of the Impressionists, he perverted the character of these exhibitions. in fact, he tied his fate with impressionism, and they alone, and Degas must give in, otherwise he will have to do without him.
But Pissarro could not dare to "leave" Degas. Renoir replied to Durand-Ruel that he personally would continue to send paintings to the Salon. “I'm not going to give in to the maniacal belief that a painting gets worse or better depending on where it was exhibited. In other words, I'm not going to waste time in grudges against the Salon. I don’t even want to show that I am offended ”. The matter ended with the fact that at the April exhibition there was one more impressionist less: Caillebotte refused to participate in it.
Renoir, completely fascinated by Algeria, decided to stay in it longer - at first he was going to stay there for a month. “I don’t want to leave Algeria without bringing something from this wonderful country.” He set up an easel in the Kasbah region, Jardin d'Essay or in their vicinity. He wrote "Arab holiday", "Banana plantations" ... The amazing light of the Mediterranean! "The magician sun turns palm trees into gold, waves roll diamonds, and people become Magi. "Renoir returned to France only in the first half of April. However, he was not going to stay in Paris, but soon wanted to go to London, where Duret was waiting for him." After the Algerian heat, the refinement of England will be more noticeable. "
However, on April 18, Renoir wrote to Theodore Dure from Chatou that he would not go to London. In Chatou, Renoir met Whistler, who briefly came to France from London. Whistler will personally explain to Dure "a thousand reasons" why Renoir should postpone his trip. “I am fighting with trees and flowers, with women and children, and I don’t want to know anything else. However, every minute I am tormented by remorse. I think about what made you difficult in vain, and I ask myself if it will be easy for you to come to terms with my whims ... It is an unfortunate lot to hesitate forever, but this is the essence of my character, and I am afraid it will not change over the years. The weather is beautiful and I have models - that's my only excuse. "
On those sunny Easter days, Papa Furnaise's restaurant was full. Renoir wrote here the rowers finishing their breakfast. A former cavalry officer, a participant in the Cochin campaign and for a short time the mayor of Saigon, Baron Barbier (this perky, merry fellow for forty years tirelessly spent his life and almost completely squandered) offered Renoir to help implement his plan. And the idea was not so simple: in order to paint a picture, Renoir had to collect at least fourteen people on the terrace of a restaurant on the banks of the Seine, along which sailboats were gliding. This picture, in spite of the Sunday festive atmosphere that emanates from it, is somewhat reminiscent of the large multi-figured compositions beloved by Fantin-Latour, and formerly by Frans Hals. And although Renoir's work was devoid of the pomp inherent in these compositions, or, in any case, some splendor, in fact, it echoed with them. The painting "Rowers' Breakfast", in which he portrayed many of his friends, regulars of Fournaise's dad - Caillebotte and Ephrussi, Barbier, Lot and Lestrenge, his model Angel (who from now on could no longer pose for him, because she was going to marry) and Alfonsine Fournez, - Renoir, although he himself probably did not yet understand it, said goodbye to his past, to the long years that he spent on the banks of the Seine and at Le Moulin de la Galette among his dancers. This brilliant canvas, a large "anthological" work, ends the impressionism period of balls and restaurants, breakfasts on the grass and green pavilions. From now on, Renoir will return to these topics only as an exception. A whole period was coming to an end. The period of Renoir's creativity and the period of his life.
In the foreground of Rowers' Breakfast at a table across from Caillebotte, a charming young woman in a hat decorated with flowers sits with her little dog. This woman is Alina Sharigo.
Alina was much less happy than one might think looking at the picture painted in Shatu. It seemed to her that she had found an excellent way to solve the problems that tormented Renoir - as she called him at that time, and afterwards. The questions of painting that worried the artist (the joyous uplift caused by the stay in Algeria quickly ended) were not so serious in the eyes of the girl. Renoir, she reasoned, “was made to write like a vineyard — to give wine. So, whether it is good or bad, with or without success, he should be painting. " On the other hand, the Parisian environment and the inevitable communication with other artists in the capital only aggravate his confusion. And Alina decided: why don't they go together to the village of Essua? There he "will be able to paint his sketches, and winegrowers busy with their business, who have no time to talk about the fate of painting, will not be a hindrance to him." But alas, such a decision attracted Renoir no more than it seduced Madame Charigot-mother ... “You have to be damn strong to doom yourself to loneliness,” said the artist, having avoided Alina's proposal. Alina now almost never left the sewing workshop. Renoir decided to spend the summer in Vargemont.
He walked to Pourville, Varengeville and Dieppe. In Dieppe, the son of Dr. Blanche, Jacques-Émile, who was engaged in painting, was deeply saddened by his mother's acceptance of Renoir. Madame Blanche first invited the artist to work in Dieppe, and then "began to make every effort to cancel the invitation." She considered him "completely insane both in painting and in conversation, and at the same time completely uneducated ... despising everything healthy, not afraid of rain or slush ...". She was annoyed by his tick, and the fact that he sat for a long time at the table. On the evening of his first visit, Renoir wrote, “Ten minutes into the sunset. This angered my mother, - said Jacques-Emile, - and she told him that he was only “transferring colors! “It’s fortunate that she attacked a man who does not notice anything! "
And already this summer, Renoir, undoubtedly, noticed even less than always.
“When you look at the works of great artists of the past, you understand that there is nothing to philosophize. What excellent masters of their craft these people were in the first place! How they knew their craft! This is everything. Painting is not just some kind of dream ... Indeed, artists consider themselves exceptional creatures, they imagine that by putting blue paint instead of black, they will turn the world upside down. "
Autumn. Alina. The secrets and perfection of the old masters. She will try to forget him. He will try to forget her. Form, which the Impressionists attached too little importance to. He is to paint a pastel portrait of Jane, Madame Charpentier's youngest daughter. One of the next days he is invited to dinner at Madame Charpentier. And his soul was deeply penetrated by love, which does not want to die. Once, as a teenager, while working in a porcelain factory, he saw "a little, furious man" who was painting. “It was Ingres. He held a notebook in his hand, he made a sketch, threw it away, started a new one and in the end, in one step, made such a perfect drawing as if he had been working on it for a week. " Love sprinkled his soul like dew. The love he wants to protect himself from. Ingres with its strikingly precise line. And suddenly Renoir left Paris for Italy. “I was suddenly on fire to see Raphael,” he wrote from Venice to Madame Charpentier.
At that time, the Italians were not very friendly towards the French, who signed a treaty in Bordeaux in May, establishing their protectorate over Tunisia. But Renoir had little interest in Italians. He was not interested in either cities or architectural monuments of Italy. Milan and Padua quickly bored him, as after a while - Florence. Milan Cathedral “with its laced marble roof, of which Italians are so proud”? Renoir shrugged his shoulders: "Nonsense!" Moreover, all these cities seemed to him extremely dull. And yet Venice was too lively and colorful for him to remain indifferent to it. “What a miracle the Doge's Palace! This white and pink marble was probably a little chilly in the beginning. But I saw him after the sun had gilded him for several centuries in a row, and what a charm it is! "
Renoir again opened his paint box and painted the palace as seen from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. He also painted the Cathedral of St. Mark and the gondola on the Grand Canal. Paintings by Tiepolo and Carpaccio were a joyful discovery for him. However, he soon drove south, because he came to Italy to see Raphael. In Florence ("There are not many places in the world where I would be so bored. Seeing all these black and white buildings, it seemed to me that there was a chessboard in front of me!") He could study Raphael's first painting - "Madonna in an armchair" from the palace Pitty. This picture was so famous that Renoir, in his own words, went to look at it "for the sake of laughter." “And so I saw such a free, so confident, such wonderfully simple and full-blooded painting that it’s impossible to imagine better: arms, legs - all living flesh, and what a touching expression of maternal tenderness!”
Arriving in Rome, Renoir did not become interested in the city and ran to look at Raphael. The creations of the author of "Madonna in the Chair" - Vatican stanzas and Farnesina frescoes - deeply moved him. “This is beautiful, and I should have seen it before,” Renoir remarked, not without sadness. “It is full of knowledge and wisdom. Raphael did not strive, as I did, for the impossible. But that's fine. In oil painting, I prefer Ingres. But the frescoes are magnificent in their simplicity and grandeur. "
When in November Renoir wrote these words to Durand-Ruel, he was already in Naples, where he discovered the art of Pompeii. "These priestesses, in their silvery gray tunics, are simply the spitting image of the Koro nymphs." After the shock of his acquaintance with Raphael, the overwhelming impression of the frescoes of Pompeii further exacerbated the artist's confusion. With the help of a range of colors, reduced to the main colors, the authors of ancient frescoes, who perfectly knew the secrets of their craft, created incomparable works. “And it is felt that they did not at all strive to hatch a masterpiece. Some merchant or courtesan ordered the artist to paint his house, and he tried to revive the smooth wall - that's all. No geniuses! No emotional experiences! ... In our time, we are all brilliant, let's say, but one thing is certain - we no longer know how to draw a hand and do not know the basics of our craft. "
Renoir wrote with passionate persistence, erasing what he had written and re-covering the canvas, dissatisfied with himself, at the mercy of what he called "the disease of seeking." “I am like a school student. A blank page should be filled without blots - and on you! - a blot. I still plant blots, although I am already forty years old, ”he confessed to Durand-Ruel, asking in advance to excuse him if he did not bring many works from the trip. The journey ultimately brought him very relative satisfaction. “I continue to drive around, just so that I don't have to come back to it,” he said to Dedon. In the hotel where Renoir lived at the boarding house, almost all of his companions were priests, and one of them, a native of Calabria, advised Renoir to go to the area. Renoir took a short excursion there, and Calabria delighted him. "I have seen miracles ... If I ever travel again, I will return here." However, the longing for Paris was engulfing him deeper and deeper. "I dream of my native land, and, in my opinion, the ugliest Parisian woman is better than the most beautiful Italian."
Returning to Naples, Renoir painted still lifes and "figures", "and this," he said, "makes me waste a lot of time: I have as many models as I want, but it is worth any of them to sit on a chair, turn three-quarters of a turn and fold hands on my knees - and I feel sick to look. "
A little bit meaner, Renoir settled in Capri. He was the only Frenchman on the island. "Magnificent" weather, immaculate blue sea, orange and olive trees, flowers, wines with a touch of Vesuvius sulfur and soup from frutti di mare somewhat improved his mood. On Capri, he created one of his finest Italian canvases, The Blond Bather, which he painted on a boat in a sun-drenched bay. In this work, noticeable changes in texture, the triumph of lines and volume are already felt, everything that was supposed to result from a period of fracture - painful, like any breakdown - that Renoir experienced at that time. A girl with mother-of-pearl skin, more reminiscent of a Scandinavian than a Neapolitan woman, exposes her immaculate body to the light, emphasizing its strong contours. How far is Renoir now from the quivering flickers of impressionism! The lessons of Raphael and the frescoes of Pompeii and the older lessons of Ingres are beginning to bear fruit. "I like painting," the artist will say later, "when it looks eternal." These words almost completely echo the words of Cézanne: "I wanted to turn impressionism into something solid and lasting, like a museum art." Both artists, who emerged from Impressionism, strove, each by their own means, to the same goal, which lay beyond its borders.
From the issue of Le Petit Magazine, which accidentally ended up in Capri, Renoir learned that on November 14 in France Gambetta had formed a government and appointed Manet's friend, Antonin Proust, Minister of Fine Arts. By order of Proust, three paintings were purchased for the Louvre at the Courbet sale at the Hotel Drouot, including The Man with a Leather Belt. According to Dure, this purchase was a kind of "public repentance, a tribute to the memory of Courbet." Renoir was very happy about this. He rightly believed that Proust would not hesitate to present the Order of the Legion of Honor to Manet - this would become another "public repentance". Here is what he wrote to his elder brother in art: “Finally, we have a minister who guesses that painting exists in France ... I hope that upon returning to the capital, I can greet you as a beloved and officially recognized artist. You, "added Renoir," are a cheerful fighter, who hate no one, like an ancient Gaul, and for this gaiety that does not leave you, even when you are treated unfairly, I love you. " For a year now, the state has ceased to exercise custody of art. From now on, the artists themselves had to organize exhibitions in the Salon, but the spirit of academism that permeated them did not weaken from this. But still Manet this year was among those whose paintings were accepted "out of competition". His struggle was coming to an end, but his life - alas! - also, because Manet was terminally ill.
Renoir hoped to return to France on January 15th. But a letter from one of the most famous Wagnerians, Jules de Breuer, forced him to postpone his departure. From November 5, Richard Wagner lived in Palermo, where he finished Parsifal. Breuer and the other Wagnerians wanted Renoir to paint a portrait of the composer. In a rather gloomy mood, the artist went by sea to Sicily. “At least fifteen hours of seasickness in the future,” he grumbled.
Arriving in Palermo, he boarded the first hotel omnibus he came across, which took him to the Hotel de France. From there, Renoir went in search of the composer. Eventually he learned that he was staying at the Hotel de Palmes. On the same evening, Renoir appeared to Wagner. He was met by a gloomy servant who disappeared somewhere and, returning after a short absence, announced that they could not receive him. In the morning, Renoir, beginning to lose patience, reappeared at the Hotel de Palmes. He had only one desire: to return to Naples as soon as possible. But then a young blond man came out, looking like an Englishman. In fact, it was the German artist Paul von Jukowski. Yukovski explained to Renoir that today - it was January 13, 1882 - Wagner was finishing the last bars of his Parsifal, that he was in an extremely "painful and nervous state, stopped eating, etc." Yukovski asked the artist to postpone his departure for a day. Renoir agreed, the meeting was scheduled for tomorrow. The next day, at five o'clock, Wagner finally received the artist.
“I heard the noise of footsteps, drowned out by the thick carpet. It was a maestro in a velvet suit with large black satin cuffs. He was very handsome and very kind, extended his hand to me, sat me down in an armchair, and then an absurd conversation began, interspersed with endless "o!" And "ah!", In a mixture of French with German and guttural endings. “I am very pleased - ah! O! (guttural sound) - did you come from Paris? "-" No, I came from Naples ... "We talked about everything. I said “we”, but I only repeated “dear maestro”, “of course, dear maestro” and got up, going to leave, but he took my hands and put me back in the chair. We talked about staging Tannhäuser at the Paris Opera, in short, it lasted at least three quarters of an hour ... Then we talked about impressionism in music. What nonsense I have not uttered! In the end, I was all sweating, drunk and red as a cancer. In short, when a shy person disperses, you cannot stop him. And yet, I do not know how to explain this, but I felt that he was pleased with me. He hates German Jews, including Wolf ... I smashed Meyerbeer. In short, I had time to say a lot of nonsense. And suddenly he said, addressing Mr. Yukovski: “If I feel good tomorrow at noon, I can pose for you before lunch. You’ll have to be lenient — I’ll do what I can, but don’t be angry with me if I don’t. Mr. Renoir, ask Mr. Jukowski if he would mind if you also paint my portrait, if, of course, it does not bother him ... "
On January 15 at noon, Renoir stood in front of Wagner with his brushes. The session really turned out to be as short as possible. Wagner devoted only thirty-five minutes to the artist. During these thirty-five minutes, Renoir painted a portrait of the composer. "O! - Wagner exclaimed, looking at the canvas. "I look like a Protestant pastor!"
On January 22, Renoir received five hundred francs from Durand-Ruel at the post office in Marseille. On January 17, from Naples, he asked the merchant to send him this money on demand so that he could get to Paris. But during this time, Renoir's plans have changed. He met with Cézanne, and since at that time it was almost spring weather in Provence, Renoir decided to stay for two weeks with his friend in Estaque near Marseille - in "a small place like Asnieres, only on the seashore," he explained to Durant -Ruelyu.
Cézanne, who had a house in Estaque, often came here and wrote among the rocky peaks and pine trees olive trees on the Nertes ridge or the bay, which in the distance was enclosed by the hills of Marselver. The Aix artist was not a very sociable companion. Failures made him withdrawn. But just in the first weeks of 1882, he expected that his old dream was about to come true and that he would be exhibited in the next Salon. Cézanne's acquaintance Guillemet, an artist of the most ordinary talent, who was a member of the jury, promised him to exercise his right of "mercy" so that Cézanne was admitted to the Palace of Industry. The situation is ridiculous, almost grotesque, but Cezanne was happy about her as a child and therefore received Renoir especially cordially. And the questions that both artists asked during this period of their work, their similar doubts at that time also contributed a lot to rapprochement despite everything that separated them and so distinguished them from each other. In comparison with the life of Cézanne, with this harsh, ascetic existence, stubbornly striving for the glacial heights of unattainable perfection and darkened by longing and oppressive uncertainty, Renoir's life, even in this period of crisis, seemed easy and joyful. A real rose garden. “I have the sun here all the time, and I can erase what I like and start over ... - wrote Renoir to Madame Charpentier, informing her that he was postponing his return to Paris. “And so I spend time in the sun, but not to paint portraits in the sunlight, but just warm myself and try to look as much as possible, hoping in this way to achieve the greatness and simplicity of the old masters.”
With whom, if not Cezanne, could Renoir so enthusiastically discuss what he saw and learned during his trip to Italy? This was undoubtedly one of the reasons that prompted him to stay in Estaque. But there was probably another, more hidden, but undoubtedly deeper than the first. Wasn't Renoir trying to delay the moment when he would meet with Alina again and in him they would fight for and against with renewed vigor? Traveling to Italy did not resolve his doubts. Renoir did not manage to forget the one who chose him.
The stay in Estaque ended rather badly. In early February, the flu, the "severe" flu, put the artist to bed. From that moment on, "the land of sea urchins," as Cézanne called it, lost most of the charm in Renoir's eyes, and now he impatiently dreamed of returning to Paris. But this did not happen soon enough. The flu turned into pneumonia. Edmond rushed to his sick brother, near whom Cezanne was busy with tender solicitude. “He was ready to drag his whole house to my bed,” said the moved Renoir. On the 19th the doctor announced that the patient was "out of danger," but still he still barely ate.
Meanwhile, letters arrived, which Renoir, exhausted by illness, read with great irritation. He tore and threw against the Caen family. “As for one and a half hundred francs from Caenes,” he wrote to Dedon, “let me say that this is simply unheard of. I have never met the worst curmudgeons. I will definitely not have any more dealings with Jews. " On the other hand, Durand-Ruel asked, even insisted - and this especially annoyed Renoir - that he take part in the upcoming, seventh, impressionist exhibition, about which Caillebotte had already written to him.
Two or three months earlier, Caillebotte, not embarrassed by the previous failure, again took steps to organize the homogeneous exhibition he had dreamed of, hoping this time to persuade Degas. But Degas only got angry. And I had to start all over again all over again, because Pissarro, like the year before, was clearly not in the mood to break with Degas. But Gauguin, who shared the point of view of Caillebotte, announced to Pissarro that, for his part, he would refuse to participate in the exhibition, since Degas did not want to give in, and that Guillaume would undoubtedly do the same. Thus, Pissarro found himself almost completely alone with Degas and his friends. He had no choice but to agree to Caillebotte. But Caillebotte was wrong if he assumed that now everything would go like clockwork. They asked Monet for prior consent - he refused. Sisley said he would follow Monet's example. Renoir referred to the fact that he was sick. Berthe Morisot “abstained”. Cezanne, warned by Pissarro, declared that "he has nothing."
Unpleasantly surprised, Caillebotte was already asking himself, not without bitterness, whether he would have to abandon his plans when Durand-Ruel unexpectedly intervened in the negotiations, whose affairs took the darkest turn for several days: at the end of January, the General Union bank crashed. Fed was arrested.
For Durand-Ruel, the collapse of the Catholic bank had the most dramatic consequences. The merchant again had to rely only on his own funds. In addition, he was burdened with a huge liability, he was obliged to pay off the advances made by Feder as soon as possible. As his financial situation turned out to be worse than ever, Durand-Ruel, in his own words, had to “get money out of everything” and fight with even greater vigor in order not to perish. And since he tied his fate with the Impressionists, it means that they must win. Let them stop their bickering for a while. From now on, Durand-Ruel himself will take over the organization of their exhibition, which will open in the halls of the Panorama of the Reichshofen at 251 rue Saint-Honoré.
Renoir, slowly recovering from pneumonia, opposed what he called "the Pissarro-Gauguin combination." Still lying in bed, on February 24, he dictated to Edmond a letter addressed to Durand-Ruel, in which he formally refused to participate in the exhibition. The merchant turned to him with a new request: he wanted to exhibit those paintings by Renoir that belonged to him. "The paintings that you bought from me are your property," Renoir answered him by telegram sent on the morning of February 26, "I cannot prevent you from disposing of them, but I am not exhibiting them." On the same day, still lying in bed, he hastily sketched a letter, dictated another, and sent both through Edmond.
“Exhibiting with Pissarro, Gauguin and Guillaume is like exhibiting with some social group ... The public doesn't like it when it smells like politics, and at my age I don't want to be a revolutionary. Staying with the Israeli Pissarro is a revolution. Moreover, these gentlemen know that I have stepped forward thanks to the Salon. So they need to quickly deprive me of what I have achieved. They are doing their best for this, and when I slip, they will give up on me. I don’t want it, I don’t want it. Get rid of these people and give me such artists as Manet, Sisley, Morisot, etc., and I am yours, because this is no longer politics, but pure art ... Therefore, I refuse and refuse again. But you can exhibit my canvases, which belong to you, and without my permission. They are yours, and I will not exercise my right to prevent you from disposing of them at your discretion, if it is on your own behalf. We will only agree firmly that the paintings signed by me are displayed by you, their owner, and not me. Under this condition, it will be said everywhere in the catalog, on posters, in prospectuses that my canvases are the property of the name of the name ... and are exhibited by Durand-Ruel. Thus, I will not be "independent" against my will ... You should not be offended by my refusal, because it is by no means directed against you, but only against these gentlemen, with whom I do not wish to act for my own good, for reasons of taste and in your interests. "
Finally, on the eve of the vernissage, Renoir sent Durand-Ruel a letter, already more calm, in which he expressed his consent to participate in the exhibition, but did not fail to emphasize:
“I ask you to tell these gentlemen that I am not going to abandon the Salon ... I hope they will forgive me this little weakness. If I am exhibiting with Guillaumene, I can exhibit with Carolus-Duran ... "
In May, a portrait by Renoir was to be exhibited at the Salon.
At the behest of the merchant, the composition of the group has changed. The old members eventually gave in more or less readily.
In fact, the group as such has now become a historical concept. And yet, never before has she appeared before the public so monolithically, as if in fact, despite the deepening discrepancies and mutual discontent, the Impressionists, before finally disbanding, wanted to demonstrate their unity - the unity in which the public would perceive them in the future. Almost all the extras are gone. Only nine artists were represented in the halls on the rue Saint-Honoré. However, apart from the two absent, Degas and Cézanne, all those who truly created impressionism, those to whom it owes its significance, who provided it with a long and fruitful life, turned out to be shoulder to shoulder at this seventh exhibition, which critics accepted calmly and even favorably ... (“Durand-Ruel must have handled the press,” wrote Eugene Manet.) Renoir, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and the benefactor of the Caillebotte group were here with three friends of Pissarro: Victor Vignon, Guillaume and Gauguin - the very Gauguin, whom Renoir and Monet did not like so much. But Gauguin's participation in this exhibition now, with the passage of time, acquires in our eyes, in the eyes of descendants, a particularly deep meaning, because it anticipates the future, what the next day should have been born from impressionism, those victories, daring, which without impressionism and his ungrateful father Manet, without the profound upheaval they caused, would have been impossible.
Among the two hundred works presented at the exhibition, Durand-Ruel showed twenty-five paintings by Renoir, among them "The Rowers' Breakfast". The artist was very worried about the impression made by his canvases. He also slightly regretted the excessive harshness he had shown in his correspondence with Durand-Ruel, and feared that he had not behaved "prudently" enough. Moreover, he was in a hurry to return to Paris, where, after he had “learned a lot,” he had “a lot to do,” he wrote to Georges Riviere. But the doctor strongly opposed his return and advised him to spend at least two weeks in the south and get medical treatment. Since Cezanne, who could not find a place for himself because of the upcoming Salon, was going to leave Estaque for Paris on March 3-4, Renoir decided to return to Algeria. Lot, who had come to fetch him at Estaque, was to accompany him. And in Algeria, Korda and Lestrenge were waiting for them.
Renoir viewed this new trip simply as an annoying "delay." He only hoped that the company of friends would brighten her up. And he also wanted to use it so that, as soon as he regained his strength, he could start writing. Last time he brought only landscapes from Algeria, this time he decided to satisfy the desire of Durand-Ruel and paint several portraits. As soon as Renoir settled in Algeria at 30 la Marin street, he began to look for models. “And it’s so difficult,” he wrote to the merchant, “the whole point is who will outwit whom… I saw incredibly colorful children here. Will you be able to get them? I will do everything in my power for this ... You probably think I am intolerable, ”he added,“ but getting a model even in Algeria is becoming more and more difficult. It's just unbearable. If you only knew how many bad artists there are. The British, in particular, spoil the few women they can count on. But all the same, I hope to bring you something. This is so beautiful".
The artist, who had completely recovered from his illness, was already working with enthusiasm by the end of March. So enthusiastic that at the beginning of April he postponed his return to France for at least a month. The fiery sun of Africa conquered him. Indeed, what magic! Once, when Renoir was working with Lot in an Algerian village, friends suddenly saw in the distance a "fairy-tale figure" of a man whose clothes sparkled like precious stones. When the man came closer, it turned out to be a beggar in rags ... Renoir painted a young Arab Ali, Algerian women, a porter from Biskra ... ultimately remained indifferent and immune to that which was alien to the spirit of his race. “Why travel to all these eastern countries of yours? Don't you have your own country? "- wrote once a native of Franche-Comté Courbet.
Several weeks spent in Algeria recovered Renoir's strength, and in May he left for France. Six or seven months have passed since he left Paris. But the journey resolved nothing - nothing. Paintings by Raphael, frescoes of Pompeii, conversations with Cezanne only strengthened the artist's conviction that he still has a lot to learn. No, the journey did not permit anything. Except for one doubt: Renoir wrote to Alina Charigo that he would be happy if she came to meet him at the station in Paris.
(1880-1881)
130 x 173 cm
Phillips Collection, Washington
A group of friends are enjoying breakfast on the sunlit terrace of an open-air café along the river a few kilometers from Paris. The painting was painted in the Fourneza restaurant, located on an islet, in Chatou, on the Seine. It was a place where high society people, poets, actors, intellectuals and rowing enthusiasts loved to meet. Just like in the earlier painting by Renoir "Ball at the Moulin de la Galette", here is conveyed a free, lively atmosphere that arises in the company of Parisians who have left to relax in the fresh air. Very modern in content, this picture, at the same time, clearly echoes the canvases of the old masters, depicting feasts, in particular with the works of the 16th century Venetian artist Veronese. Despite the fact that the picture conveys a sense of spontaneity of the moment, Renoir carefully built its composition over several months, inviting models (his friends and people specially invited for this) to Chatou, who posed for him separately.
The paintings, which depict Parisians vacationing outside the city, ALLOWED Renoir and other impressionists to combine interest in scenes of modern life with work in the open air. Renoir and his friend Monet even earlier, back in 1869, painted Parisians vacationing, sitting side by side on the banks of the Paddling Pool in Bougival, one and a half kilometers from Chatou. And in the future, the scenes of recreation on the river continued to inspire the artist.
Many suburban recreational areas such as Chatou (where "The Rowers' Breakfast" was written) became easily accessible to Parisians with the development of the rail network in the middle of the century.
By 1880, Chatou had become a favorite destination for outdoor activities, where not only wealthy Parisians, but also working people came for weekends. Different towns located on the banks of the Seine near Paris provided different types of water recreation. So, for example, Argenteuil, where Monet settled in 1873, turned over time into a real yacht club, so many of this artist's canvases feature boats under snow-white sails. Rowing enthusiasts gathered mainly in Asnieres and Chatou, and we find boats with rowers in the paintings of Renoir and Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), who painted the same scenes in completely different ways. Renoir's canvases convey to the viewer the languid laziness of weekends on the river, while Cai-Bott focuses on the physical efforts of athletes. Caillebotte, who was himself a good rower and yachtsman, can be seen in Renoir's painting. He sits in the foreground right, wearing a T-shirt and a traditional straw boater hat.