Born Feb. 25, 1841 Renior: Painter of love and nature

French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born just 11 days short of Valentine’s Day on February 25, 1841. His life, however, would be framed by his love for nature and people and his expression of that in painting.

The man who would go on to become a central figure in the Impressionist movement, collaborating with other renowned French masters like Claude Monet and Jean Frederic Bazille, started off in humble beginnings, the sixth of seven children. His family’s financial circumstances precipitated a move to Paris from Renoir’s birthplace of Limoges when he was only 3 years old. This would eventually prove fortuitous, and their new city address was only a stone’s throw away from the Louvre. The world-renowned art museum would become a refuge for Renoir when at age 13, he had to give up the pursuit of a musical career and get an apprenticeship at a porcelain factory, painting plates.

At the Louvre, Renoir explored 18th-century French masters and showed the curiosity for the work of others that would later lead to experimentation and the creation of a new movement. The factory owner, who recognized Renoir’s talent, encouraged him to pursue studies in art. Some time after the factory closed, in 1862, Renoir began serious study under Charles Gleyre in Paris.

Renoir’s early career was marked by poverty, and he is known to have struggled through the 1860s, barely able to buy paints and canvases. He didn’t give up, however. He submitted his work to the Salon and forged alliances with people who would prove to be patrons. The turning point in his career came in 1867 when he painted his mistress Lise Trehot. ‘Lise and the Parasol’ displayed Renoir’s sensitivity to female sensuality and the female nude would become one of his primary subjects. Trehot, herself would become an inspiration for a number of his paintings, according to Sophie Monneret’s 1991 memoir called ‘Renoir.’

Producing thousands of paintings in his lifetime, Renoir’s work in review shows an artist driven by love. After his marriage in 1890, he turned his attention to capturing his wife, family life and children. In his late career, after a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis that left his fingers permanently disfigured, he still continued to create, hiring an assistant to help him realize his artistic visions in sculpture.