Works Exhibited
About
The simplest subjects are the immortal ones.
—Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Featuring nine works that span his career from the 1870s through the 1910s, the exhibition includes Impressionist landscapes and female figure paintings.
As a founder and principal figure of Impressionism, Renoir played a fundamental role in the group’s move from studio-based traditionalism to an art centered on modern life in and around Paris. Working in the open air, the Impressionists transcribed their sensory experience, rendering ephemeral effects of light through broken brushstrokes of saturated color. Bords de Seine à Argenteuil (c. 1881–82) pictures one of the Impressionists’ favorite sites in a town near Paris. Two stylishly dressed women on the banks of the Seine are integrated into a dynamic composition of boats, bridge, clouds, and water. Le Jardin d’essai à Alger (1881) emerged from the artist’s travels to Algiers. Representing the city’s botanical garden, it depicts palm fronds, vibrant sunlight, and dappled shadows in an allée occupied by promenading figures.
Women were Renoir’s favored subject throughout his career, from his Impressionist depictions of fashionable Parisiennes to the figures in domestic and natural settings of his later years. From the 1880s, Renoir shifted his approach to one inspired by the old masters—above all Raphael and Rubens—introducing linear precision, smooth modeling, and more structured compositions to his paintings of the female form. For the remainder of his career, he explored the reconciliation of this classical approach to the figure with the luminous palette and loose brushwork of Impressionism, producing a new mode of figuration marked by its sensuality and innovative modern palette.
最簡單的題材才能歷久不衰。
—皮耶‧奧古斯特‧雷諾瓦
高古軒欣然宣布舉行皮耶‧奧古斯特‧雷諾瓦(Pierre-Auguste Renoir)展覽，帶來藝術家在1870年代至1910年代創作的九幅精彩力作，涵蓋印象派風景畫以至女性人物作品。
雷諾瓦為印象派先驅兼重要人物，他發揮舉足輕重的影響力，帶領印象派由以工作室為主的傳統主義，逐漸發展成以巴黎和周邊地區現代生活為重點的藝術運動。主要在戶外創作的印象派畫家以畫筆記錄他們的感官體驗，透過色彩濃厚的細碎筆觸，捕捉稍縱即逝的光影效果。《阿讓特伊的塞納河》（Bords de Seine à Argenteuil，約1881年至82年作）描繪印象派畫家在巴黎附近小鎮阿讓特伊最喜歡的創作地點。塞納河畔兩位打扮時髦的女士，融入由小船、橋樑、雲和河水構成的動感構圖之中。《阿爾及爾的隨筆花園》（Le Jardin d'essai à Alger，1881年作）源於雷諾瓦的阿爾及爾之旅，描繪當地一座植物園內的棕櫚葉、明媚的陽光、斑駁的樹影及行人漫步的小路。
在他的創作生涯之中，女性一直是雷諾瓦最喜歡的主題，他除了以印象派手法描繪巴黎的時尚女性，在晚年時也捕捉處理家居和自然環境中的女士。由1880年代起，雷諾瓦受到古典大師（特別是拉斐爾(Raphael)和魯本斯(Rubens)）啟發，一改畫風，開始以精準的線條、流麗的形體和更立體的構圖創作女性畫作。他其後亦嘗試以描繪人物的古典手法，結合印象派的明亮色彩和鬆散筆觸，自創出一種全新的具像風格，展現觸動感官的創新現代色彩。
《坐著的女人》（Femme assise，約1879年作）是雷諾瓦運用粉彩的代表作，生動的筆觸令人物躍然於紙上。在《坐在藍色背景前的小女孩》（Portrait de fillette sur fond bleu，約1890年作）中，他以俐落流暢的筆觸刻劃人物的頭部，紅褐色的頭髮展現細緻的色彩變化，而鬆散的白色、藍色和粉紅色筆觸，則描繪連身裙的褶襇。而在《戴珍珠項鏈的女人》（Femme au collier de perles，約1900年作）中，絢麗的色彩和女士身上的服飾，令人想起法蘭索瓦‧布雪（François Boucher）和讓‧奧諾雷‧弗拉戈納爾（Jean-Honoré Fragonard）等洛可可時期畫家令人嘆為觀止的風格與色彩實驗。
《在茶几前穿著東方服飾的少女》（Jeune femme en costume oriental devant une table à thé，1909至1910年作）描繪一名身處家中的年輕女子，畫家以柔和的筆觸和明亮的色彩強調場景的寧靜氣息。人物身穿便服，在鎏金茶几前擺好姿勢，髮上的玫瑰花與她身上的暖色調巧妙呼應。《抹身的裸女》（Nu s’essuyant，1912年作）則是雷諾瓦晚期的裸體畫傑作，以親密的手法描繪在虛構的田園環境中沐浴的女子。描繪裸女的筆觸輕柔而充滿自信，與背景明亮柔和的曲線形成對比，交織出散發田園氣息的和諧優雅美感。
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Artist
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
