Gabrielle and Jean by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Magnet

Gabrielle and Jean by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas 1895-96, is a portrait painting of a young woman seated at a table holding in infant boy in her lap, playing with a toy cow or bull. The subjects are Gabrielle Renard, a cousin of Renoir's wife Aline Charigot who became the nanny of their children, and the infant son of the artist, Jean Renoir, who grew up to become a renowned French film director. Painted in thin brush strokes of rapidly applied, fluid oil paint, the picture tenderly defines the features, faces, hair, atmosphere and white infant jumper suit of the subjects, painted with great human empathy. The dark haired Gabrielle posed for many portraits and outdoor figure paintings for Renoir during the years that she lived with the family, assisted the painter in the studio while severe arthritis crippled him, and gave the son Jean his first viewing of the new medium of cinema. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919) was a French painter and leading figure of the 19th century French Impressionist movement. As a boy Renoir painted designs on fine china and fans, and studied paintings in the Louvre, until he went to study art with Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Monet, Sisley and other members of the Impressionist group. Influenced by the Realism of Courbet and the painterly sense of light and colour of Monet and other plein-air painters, Renoir developed a softly painted style of vibrant light and saturated colour. Renoir painted many portraits and landscapes but concentrated on dazzling scenes of contemporary life which captured a momentary snapshot in time, while the influence of Titian, Rubens and the Rococo painters inspired his many figurative paintings and domestic scenes. Renoir married and had three children who became accomplished artists themselves, and in his older age continued to paint prolifically while partially disabled by severe arthritis. In 1919 Renoir became nearly the only living artist honoured by an exhibition in the Louvre alongside the works of the old masters. Renoir's fluid, masterful technique, unique sense of light and colour, warm sensuality and human empathy made him one of the most beloved and popular painters of all time.