had already met his untimely death in the Franco-Prussian War. He never did get to exhibit together with the others but he was nonetheless dubbed an Impressionist.
Promenade
1870
Oil on canvas, 80 × 64 cm
British Rail Pension Fund, London
According to Renoir, Bazille was the one who brought Alfred Sisley to Gleyre’s studio. Perhaps, he was mistaken though, and Sisley found his own way there.
Sisley was born in Paris, to a French mother and an English father. When Jean-Frédéric Bazille first walked home from the studio with Renoir, they dropped into the Closerie des Lilas and Renoir asked him why he had wanted to talk to him. “Because of your way of drawing,” Bazille replied. “I think you are somebody.”
Lise Wearing a White Shawl
1872
Oil on canvas
E. Reves collection
Besides, Renoir made a brilliant showing in all the compulsory competitions, earning the highest awards for drawing, perspective, anatomy and “likeness”, which is incontestable evidence of the fact that his years with Gleyre were not spent in vain. Renoir told his son with satisfaction that he had once painted a nude following all the rules that Gleyre had taught them. The Professor was astonished: it seems that his pupil, having perfectly mastered the science of painting, nevertheless continued to work “for his own amusement”.
Portrait of Claude Monet
1872
Oil on canvas, 61 × 50 cm
Musée Marmottan, Paris
As with every artist, Renoir’s passions in art altered with age, but from childhood the Louvre remained for him something unassailable. “It is in the museum that people learn how to paint,” he said. “I often argued about that with some of my friends who put up against me the absolute preferability of working outside, among nature. They disparaged Corot for reworking his landscapes in the studio.”
Monet Painting in His Garden in Argenteuil
1873
Oil on canvas, 50 × 62 cm
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (Connecticut)
Much later, when he was no longer young and already a mature artist, Renoir had the opportunity to see Rembrandt in Holland, Velázquez, Goya and El Greco in Spain, Raphael in Italy. His encounter with each of the Old Masters brought him joy: “You have to be able to take from each master that satisfaction that he wanted to give us… But it is there, in the museum, that you get a taste for painting that nature alone cannot give you”.
Young Girl Reading a Magazine
c. 1873
Oil on canvas, 35.5 × 27.5 cm
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode Island
At that time, however, when the friends gathered at the Closerie des Lilas and Renoir lived and breathed ideas of a new kind of art, he always had his own inspirations in the Louvre. “For me, in the Gleyre era, the Louvre was Delacroix” he confessed to Jean. The death of Eugène Delacroix in 1863 caused the whole young generation of French artists to realize what the painting of the great Romantic had been for them.
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