Matisse and Picasso were not only fervent admirers of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but over and over again turned to him for inspiration as they extended the characteristics of painting in the early twentieth century.
It can be said that Renoir continues inspiring artists of today. I realize this to be especially true when I daily search the internet for contemporary artist’s blog and web sights and study their works. I’m not certain they are aware of the influence Renoir has had on their art work, but influence he has had. Many may name a more contemporary artist as their influence and inspiration, but in many cases it can be tracked down through the decades of artists inspiring artists to the last quarter of the 19th century when Renoir painted the plethora of art work that he did. He accomplished some of his most striking Impressionist effects and his most arresting color discoveries while painting landscapes side by side with his colleagues, Monet, Sisley, and Ce’zanne.
Renoir’s subject, in many cases, was figure painting, but some of his most “free” flowing Impressionist works were his masterful landscapes. Here he became a genius of color and mood.
In his painting, In The Woods, the human form is eliminated, and the entire canvas is given over to a tangled and complicated arrangement of dots and dashes of colors representing leaves. Colors of dark green and blue tones are on the right side of the canvas, the bottom features red pigments, and the upper left side glows with golden highlights. All of these dominant colors merge in the center with a more or less pastel haze. There seems to be a sense of space and depth as the visitor’s eyes are drawn down the path. It almost gives off the atmospheric effect suggestive of moist, pungent mists of an afternoon walk in the woods. I’ve walked this path of woods before.
Over the past century many great artists have given credit to Renoir as the one artist they admire. Jackson Pollock was a fan of Renoir, giving credit to his Impressionist style of landscapes and use of color as being most inspiring to him.
