Auguste Renoir - Roche Goyon 1885

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From Aberdeen Art Gallery:
Pierre Auguste Renoir is today regarded as one of the greatest exponents of Impressionism. His early work was influenced by Gustave Courbet and until c.1868 he used heavy impasto and dark colours. That year, however, he and Claude Monet worked together painting on the Seine, and as a result Renoir's colours became lighter and his handling freer.
The time Renoir spent with Cézanne in La Roche-Guyon was critical for his development and in this work the influence of Cézanne's 'constructivist stroke' is clear. Here the strokes run diagonally from upper right to lower left through the sky, clouds, and distant hills, and down to the roofs of the cottages.

In 1886,Van Gogh writes to a friend: ‘I have made a series of colour studies
in painting simply flowers (…) seeking oppositions of blue with orange, red
and green, yellow and violet, seeking the broken and neutral tones to
harmonise brutal extremes. Trying to render intense colour and not a grey
harmony’. - art-vanGogh.com

In his book Noa Noa Gauguin describes his experience of Tahiti and its inhabitants
on his arrival in 1891. He describes the woman in the portrait thus: 'She was not
pretty – at least not by European standards – but beautiful.' Disillusioned with
Europe and the Western art scene Gauguin took his leave and went in search
of a new beginning in the Pacific Islands. - art-Gauguin.com

art-Renoir.com

Auguste Renoir 1841-1919