Rocky Crags at L'Estaque by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Postcard

Rocky Crags at L'Estaque by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas 1882, is a landscape painting of a rising, rocky cliff face brightly lit by the sun, covered in scarce green vegetation and trees under a clear, azure blue sky. L'Estaque is a small village near Marseilles in the south of France where Cezanne and other painters painted the distinct, dry landscape and the Mediterranean. Working in quickly applied, small brush strokes of unblended oil colour, Renoir defines the warm, sunlight areas of rock and rising cliffs in contrast with the complementary, cool blue shadows of trees and jagged ravines. 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.