Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Seascape Tile

Seascape, 1879 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Limoges, 1841 - Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1919) was a French Impressionist painter. He painted this unusual subject during a stay at the home of his patron Paul Bérard at Wargemont, on the Normandy coast. Renoir is best known for dancers, boaters and scenes of leisure, and in his landscapes he preferred sunny days, so unsettled weather is rare in his work. Here a bleak, overcast sky and churning surf convey a feeling of exposure to the elements, on a stretch of coast untouched by urbanization. Yet rather than paint nature as an untamable force, he brushed the wave delicately, turning the picture into a mood piece, more decorative than foreboding and more melancholy than stormy.