Renoir, My Father

This book is a rich and completely absorbing treasure trove of history, anecdote and the wonders of Renoir's painted world. Taking us from the mid-19th century to the first part of the 20th century, it charts the struggles the painter overcame to understand, reach the very essence of the natural world and its people. His paintings are wrought of love for humanity through every brush-stroke. So fascinating and completely recommended. Meanwhile, the author, Jean Renoir, defers to his father, leaving one wishing to turn both back to Renoir's paintings and Jean's films. It's also a hymn to the artisan in the painter, to things being made by hand, having been seen, observed or remembered - about the loss of these skills and qualities, ways of living in the face of ever more mechanisation.

It is delightful to be welcomed into Renoir’s world, meeting the likes of Gambetta and Pisarro, and seeing how impressionism was finally accepted.

I'm reading this simultaneously with Jean Renoir's book My Life and My Films.....written in filmic flashback style in 1962, forty three years after his father's death in 1919, this book gives very personal reflections on both men's lives, loves and works...just wonderful

Stunningly good book. A work of art. Takes you right back to Paris at the end of the 19th and beginning oc 20th centuries and paints a brilliant picture of Renoir, his family and his wider circle.

Excellent book, gripping read, well written with a cinematic quality as you'd expect. 👍🏻