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Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French Artist
Hat Pin
5" x 3-1/2"
Intaglio / drypoint etching
$7,500 Unframed
Hat Pin is a delicate depiction of of two young women sharing a special moment, while one assists the other with repositioning a traditional French hat pin. The impeccable attention to detail is evident in the subtle layering of line, value and texture.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir(b. Feb. 25, 1841, Limoges, France--d. Dec. 3, 1919, Cagnes) French painter originally associated with the Impressionist movement. His early works were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women (e.g. , Bathers, 1884-87).
Renoir is perhaps the best-loved of all the Impressionists, for hissubjects---pretty children, flowers, beautiful scenes, above all lovely women---have instant appeal, and he communicated the joy he took in them with great directness. `Why shouldn't art be pretty?', he said, `There are enough unpleasant things in the world.' He was one of the great worshippers of the female form, and he said `I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it.' One of his sons was the celebrated film director Jean Renoir (1894-1979), who wrote a lively and touching biography (Renoir, My Father) in 1962.
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