Algerian Girl by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Postcard

Algerian Girl by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas 1881, is a painting of a dark-haired young woman from North Africa seated on a low bench on a brilliantly coloured, decorative rug against a colourful wall hanging. Renoir travelled to Algeria in 1881 in emulation of his hero, French romantic painter Eugene Delacroix, seeking new subjects, inspiration, and colourful motifs. Painted with great empathy for the subject in loose, fluidly applied brushstrokes of saturated colour, the picture captures the exotic sense of life and colour of the subject and exemplifies the 19th century movement of Orientalism, which sought exotic subjects in the Near and Far East. 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.