Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was the oldest of the Impressionist artists and considered a father figure, teacher, mentor, and supporter. He also was a prolific painter. Pissarro was born on the island of St Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies. His father Gabriel Pissarro, a French Jew from Portugal, had moved to St Thomas to manage the hardware store owned by his recently deceased brother. He married his brother’s wife, and they had four children. The marriage was a scandal, and Camille and his siblings grew up as outsiders. All four children attended an all-black primary school. He met Danish artist Fritz Melbye in 1849, and Melbye took over Pissarro’s artistic education. He became Pissarro’s great friend and mentor. Pissarro later would do the same for the younger Impressionists. Pissarro and Melbye traveled to Venezuela and painted scenes from Caracas and St Thomas. 

Pissarro traveled to Paris in 1855 to serve as an assistant to Melbye’s brother. He studied the work of contemporary Barbizon painters Daubigny, Millet, and Corot, and realist painter Courbet, and all became friends. He was introduced to plein air painting. His first exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1868 was a success. The paintings he exhibited made his reputation, yet they were not of the Impressionist style that he would soon embrace. 

The Franco-Prussian war made it necessary for Pissarro to move to London, as was the case with several of his fellow artists. He met the art dealer Durand-Ruel and the artist Monet.  He married his mother’s maid Julie Vellary in 1871, and they had seven children, six of whom became painters. On returning to Louveciennes, outside Paris, he found that of the 1500 paintings he had made over the period of 20 years, and had to leave behind, only 40 remained.

The family moved to Pontoise in 1872 and remained there until 1884. Pissarro became one of the group of Impressionists artists who called themselves Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs. His paintings of working-class people in rural towns were fully Impressionistic. He participated in all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions. 

 

 

Pissarro suffered from a recurring eye infection that became severe in 1893. It prevented him from sitting outdoors and painting en plein air. He was determined to continue to paint outdoor scenes, but from the upper rooms of hotels in the cities of Paris, Rouen, Le Havre, Dieppe, and London. His reputation by that time was well-established and as he hoped his paintings of the new the new Paris designed by Haussmann attracted buyers. Pissarro painted “The Place du Havre, Paris” (1893) (24’’x29’’) from his window of the Hotel Garner during a visit for a few weeks. The large building to the right is the Gare St Lazare train station. Renoir and Monet had painted scenes of downtown Paris, but had long since turned to other themes. Pissarro revived the interest in Paris scenes. The wide avenues, Haussmann buildings, horsedrawn carriages, gas and then electric lights, and the continuous hustle and bustle as seen from above allowed him to capture the energy of the streets. 

 

 

Although city scenes were not a part of his usual subject matter, he excelled in these paintings. He said he could “see down the whole length of the boulevards, almost a bird’s-eye view of carriages, omnibuses, people, between big trees, big houses that have to be set straight.” He chose to depict the most important streets in Paris, and influenced by Monet, he chose different times of day and different weather conditions.  

“Rue Saint-Honore, in the Afternoon, Effect Rain” (1897) (32”x26’’) was one of several pieces he painted before moving on. Just over one mile long, Rue Saint-Honore was the center of Paris Haute Couture. High-end fashion houses, boutiques, designer shops, and art galleries attracted wealthy Parisiennes. Several horse-drawn carriages are parked at the curb, while others ply the crowded boulevard. Haussmann buildings line the street. The restaurant on the corner has a red and white awning and tables on the sidewalk. The plaza contains trees, a large fountain, and street lights. People, most with open umbrellas, populate the scene. More awnings and decorated store fronts are across the street. Pissarro was expert at handling the wet street and the gray atmosphere.

 

From February through April 1897, Pissarro recorded the Boulevard des Italians and the Boulevard Montmartre from his room in the Grand Hotel de Russie. He found “terribly difficult views” for his “Boulevard Italians, Morning Sunlight” (1897) (29”x36”) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). 

The street was busy, with passenger omnibuses picking up and discharging passengers among the many individual carriages. Two rows of trees line the street, and the large sidewalks are full of people. Pissarro included a tall red advertising kiosk on the right sidewalk.  The kiosks were covered with flyers promoting all manner of things–theatre, opera, restaurants, the circus, cigarettes. The invention of lithography made it possible to print advertisements quicker and cheaper to promote the new bourgeois entertainments. The posters of Toulouse-Lautrec come to mind.

 

 

“Boulevard Montmartre at Night” (1897) (21”x26”) is considered one of Pissarro’s masterpieces, equal to Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (1889). Painting at night was difficult, and when successful was exceptional. Gas lights lined city streets in the 19th Century, but they were replaced by the white electric lights in 1878, included in this scene. Street lights were one of Hausmann’s ideasto make Paris safer, and they made night life possible. Pissarro painted 14 scenes of Boulevard Montmartre in sunlight, snow, rain, fog, and mist, and in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Carriages are parked along the sidewalks, waiting for passengers. Shops and restaurants run the whole length of the street. Dashes and dots of brushwork suggest this active scene.

 

 

 

Pissarro created 15 paintings in 1898 from his room in the Grand Hotel du Louvre on the Place du Palais Royal. His room provided a view of the Avenue de l’Opera, the Place du Theatre Francais, and the Rue Saint-Honore. In “Avenue de l’Opera, Snow Effect” (1898) (26”x21”), two large roundabouts can be seen on either side of the wide thoroughfare that leads to the distant, newly constructed Paris Opera House (1861-1875). With the industrial revolution in full swing, the newly wealthy middle class formed associations to fund institutions such as the opera house. In the past, opera stages were part of royal palaces and available only to members of the ruling classes. The Paris Opera House, designed by Charles Garnier (1825-1898), is obscured by the mist in this painting, but it was and is grandiloquent. Pissarro chose to show the effects of a heavy snow fall, leaving roof tops and awnings tipped with white. The line of buildings and the tracks in the snow create a strong perspective view.

The years from 1897 until 1898 brought several tragedies into Pissarro’s life. His son Lucien suffered a stroke and another son Felix died of tuberculosis at age 23. The Dreyfus Affair concerned an Army Captain, who was Jewish and wrongfully accused and convicted of being a German spy as a result of antisemitism. Pissarro, a Jew, lost some of his friends who were antisemitic. Never political of religious in his paintings, he did write a few letters in support of Dreyfus’s innocence. He was able to separate politics from painting, and in a letter to his son Lucien to tell him of Felix’s death, he wrote: “I am delighted to be able to try to do these Paris streets, which are so often called ugly, but which are so silvery, so luminous and so lively”.

Pissarro took an apartment at 204 rue de Rivoli that faced the Jardin des Tuileries.  He painted six views of the garden. “Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning’’ (1899) (29”x36”) is a depiction of the park, created by Queen Catherine de Medici in 1564, located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. The garden was opened to the public in 1667. The two steeples of the church of Sainte-Clotilde can be seen in the distance.  Pissarro’s dealer Durand-Ruel happily took the paintings to sell. The paintings were so successful that Pissarro took the same rooms later in 1899. He created another 14 paintings of the garden and 8 views of the Place du Carousel. 

 

From 1900 until 1903, Pissarro painted views of the Louvre from the second floor of a house on Place Dauphine. “The Seine at the Louvre” (1903) (19’’x22”) is his last painting. It is a depiction of an overcast fall day. The buildings of the Louvre are shrouded in a blue-gray mist. Some boats ply the river. A few people are on the Square du Vert-Galant at the lower left. In summer it is a green space with a variety of trees. The Pont des Arts (1803), a pedestrian bridge between the Louvre and the Institut de France, spans the river. It was the first iron bridge in Paris. The bridge became famous in 2008 for the love locks that people attached to the rails. 

Pissarro died of sepsis on November 13, 1903. His wife and remaining children were present. Many prominent artists attended his funeral, among them Monet, Renoir, and Matisse. The next generation of French painters, the Fauves and Matisse, recognized the importance of Pissarro to Impressionism and the liberation of art for the future. Pissarro was and continues to be considered the father of Impressionism.

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Tom Deininger was born in Boston in 1970. He is a sculptor who works in the style known as assemblage: unrelated, found objects brought together to form a work of art. His sculptures are created with discarded objects that are not biodegradable or recyclable. His work is collected world-wide

He is dyslexic and suffers from ADHD.  School was difficult, but he was able to express himself through drawing and making things. Deininger describes himself as “very outdoorsy. I grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts, and I lived in a wooded area with ponds and a river.” He attended Salve Regina University in Newton, Rhode Island, graduating with honors in art. After college he traveled through Europe, Central America, and the South Pacific.  He surfed, and he made and sold his art. On this trip to the remote and beautiful beaches of the South Pacific, he saw piles of American plastic trash. He became acutely aware of the damage to the environment created by our consumerist society. Deininger returned to Rhode Island in 1999. He set up a studio in Fall River, Massachusetts. A visit to the Nantucket landfill gave him the idea to make his work three-dimensional, using the thrown-away waste of society. 

“Wave 1” (2012) (3’x4’x2.5’) was inspired by Deininger’s love of surfing. Made entirely of found plastic objects, it depicts a large white wave, curling, and pounding the beach–a surfer’s wave. Bits of plastic webbing are visible. This work is small in scale. “Wave 3” (2012) (not shown) (6’x8’x3’) and other works are even larger. He chose to depict what he loved in nature and the destructive effect of consumerism on the environment. He contributes 50% of the sale of his sculptures to the organization Narragansett, Rhode Island Save the Bay.

“Poland Springs” (12’x20’) (undated) was made from plastic water bottles the Maine corporation Poland Springs uses to contain its product. The waterfalls, plants, and trees of the region create a refreshing view of a heathy and pleasing environment. Pure, fresh, clean water is the product. It takes three liters of fresh water to make one liter of Poland Springs bottled water.

The organization Fortune Brainstorm Green has sponsored annual conferences beginning in 2008 to focus attention on issues of sustainability by bringing together leaders from government, business, and other organizations. Deininger was commissioned to create a 20’x10’ backdrop (not depicted) for one of the conferences. =

Deininger once commented, “I go to the beach about four days a week, and I pick stuff up. It’s hunter-gatherer, to be honest. And now I’m getting donations from people on Instagram. They don’t like throwing this stuff away.”

“Plastic Paradise” (12’x20’) (undated) is a depiction of a flower-filled meadow, a tall green forest, a rocky mountain, all set under a clear blue sky. Perhaps Deininger hoped the ironic title would make people think. In a 2024 interview with Yahoo news, he stated, “I don’t think we’re alarmed enough. Everyone’s not alarmed enough, enough of the time, is my fear. We should all be petrified and willing to do whatever it takes.”

Deininger occasionally selects known works to recreate as assemblages. “Stroking Monet” (2010s) recalls Monet’s “Japanese Footbridge” (1899) in found plastic junk. Deininger dumpster dives, rummages through people’s garbage cans on trash day, and picks things up all the time.

So, what is it all about? When viewers are able to look at his work up close, they experience a totally new reality. Plastic Sponge Bob Square Pants, Barbies and Barbie parts, Kermit the Frog, abandoned plastic toys, bottle caps, cassette tapes, wire, plastic syringes, plastic bags, and more, all come together to create an entirely different impression. The juxtaposition of parts is funny, sad, alarming, violent, bizarre, and sexual. 

Deininger offers his point of view: “And so you’ve got one thing up close and it coalesces into something else all together from a distance. So, just the idea of what is reality, what is truth, has everything to do with perception…. It reminds me of how slippery it can be, what is real and what is true.”

In more recent years, Deininger has begun to create his assemblages with images of birds, fish, and other animals. In his interviews he talks about his process. “Honeybee” (undated) was   made from plastic bristles, netting, wire, toy figurines, a plastic German Shepherd, a little man holding a long stick, Shaggy and Scobey-Doo figures, a doll’s head, green plastic forks, and half a pair of sunglasses to represent the eye, among other things. 

This double image captures both sides of the sculpture, similar to what a viewer would be able to see when the work is on display. Glueing, wiring, drilling, and pinning are among the processes used. Creating the basic sculpture takes about a week, with more time needed to refine the final image.

Deininger researches each animal: “To cull through hundreds of images of bees and find the one you want because you can clearly see the eye or the thorax—you get to understand the granular details of variation within a species.”

Deininger observes, “We tend to dismiss things that are inexpensive and don’t look at their beauty overall. But when you can take something out of context and put it together with a variety of other things, you can coax a new definition out of it and maybe a new purpose.”

Deninger talks about birds: “I’m just really fascinated with them. Fascinated by the physical engineering and also there is a wonder about birds…. It’s often about things coming down from the heavens. Birds occupy this space that isn’t available for us to occupy. I think humans have always been attracted to birds in a spiritual way.” 

The subject of the sculpture “Osprey” (2023) (18”x12”x39”) is well-known to those of us who live on the Mid-Shore. The retirement community Heron Point maintains an Osprey nest with a video camera set up so that residents can watch 24/7 during the season.  

It is possible to see both sides of another of Deininger’s sculptures, Maryland’s State bird.

In 2025, Deininger started a permaculture farm, an agriculturally sustainable and self-sufficient ecosystem, to take care of rescued animals.

In several interviews over a period of time he offered his point of view; 

“There’s so much junk around us that we can recreate the natural world.” (The Provincetown Independent, 3/212/25) 

“Yes, we can call these objects masterpieces.” (Yalik Ak, 7/9/2014)

“You know, nothing changes if we do the same thing over and over again, and just walk into an ecological crisis that is irreversible. It’s about adopting a new perspective.” (Blue Dot Living, 2025)

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Imogene Cunningham (1883-1976) was the fifth of ten children born to Isaac Burns and Susan Elizabeth Cunningham. Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Seattle, Washington, she was inquisitive and interested in everything. She graduated with honors in 1907 from the University of Washington, having majored in chemistry. She was elected to membership in the Alpha Chapter of Pi Beta Phi. 

In 1901, Cunningham purchased for $15 a 4”x5” view camera, and she enrolled in the correspondence course to learn how to take pictures. She earned some of her college tuition by photographing plants for the botany department. With the help of her chemistry professor, she learned about photographic processes. Her graduation thesis was titled “Modern Processes of Photography.” After graduation, Cunningham worked for Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), one of America’s premier photographers of the American West. She learned platinum printing and assisted in the production of his book The North American Indian. 

 

Cunningham was awarded in 1909 a Pi Beta Phi Graduate Fellowship to study photographic chemistry at the Technical University in Dresden, Germany. Her aim was to discover a printing solution that was less expensive than platinum, then in use. Her final paper was “About the direct development of platinum paper for brown tones.” Her process increased printing speed and the clarity of highlights, and produced sepia tones. On her return home, she met noted American photographers Alvin Langdon Colburn (1882-1966) in London and Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and Gertrude Kasebier (1842-1934) in New York. Cunningham opened her photographic studio in Seattle in 1910, and she quickly became successful.

“Wood Beyond the World I” (1910) (13.5’’x9’’) (gelatine silver print) likely was influenced by Kasebier’s hazy photographic images of imaginary worlds described in the legend of King Arthur. The Wood Beyond the World (1894) was a fantasy novel written by William Morris (1834-1896), the English Pre-Raphaelite artist, who established the William Morris Company that produced fabric and wallpaper prints still popular today. Cunningham’s photograph is a depiction of the enchanted wood where an unhappy husband encounters a mysterious maiden. Achieving the soft focus with just the right amount of contrast between dark and light is complicated. The photograph presents the viewer with a dreamworld.

 

Cunningham was the first woman photographer to have an exhibition (1913) at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her portraits were included at An International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in New York in 1914. Wilson’s Photographic Magazine published a portfolio of her work.  She married Roi George Patridge in 1915, and they had three sons. They moved to San Francisco in 1917. Patridge began to teach art at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1920.

While raising the children, Cunningham began her close-up botanical photographic series. She planted a garden in order to study various plants. “Two Callas” (1925) (20’’x16’’) (gelatin silver print) represents her transition to sharp-focused prints. She said, “The reason during the twenties that I photographed plants was that I had three children under the age of four to take care of, so I was cooped up. I had a garden available and I photographed them indoors. Later when I was free, I did other things.” At this same time, Georgia O’Keeffe was painting her large-scale, close-up flower details. Since both artists were in the Stieglitz studio, there was much speculation about the connection of their work.  Although they knew each other and each other’s work, neither artist was influenced by the other. “Two Callas” has become an iconographic Cunningham image. The negative had been lost for many years until she found it in 1973. She made several more prints before her death.

 

“Magnolia Blossom” (1925) (11’’x14’’) (gelatin silver print) is one of several studies of magnolia plants. The detail of the stamen and pistil is precise, and the more delicate curves of the petals provide a marvelous contrast.  

Cunningham co-founded Group f/64 with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston on November 15, 1932.  f/64 is the smallest focal aperture on a camera. Rather than moving in an abstract direction, like the New York photographers, f/64 wanted precision “pure and straight.” According to Cunningham, “f/64 is not only American, it is Western American. It isn’t even American. It’s western…This does not mean that we all used the small aperture, but we were for reality. That was what we talked about too. Not being phony, you know.” The group of eleven photographers held their first exhibition in 1932 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. 

Cunningham founded the California Horticultural Society in 1933. Her photographs of plants were so detailed that they often were used by horticulturalists and other scientists in their work. 

 

Cunningham’s photographs during the 1930’s and until the 1960’s were mostly portraits. “Alfred Stieglitz at An American Place” (1934) was commissioned by Stieglitz (1864-1946). He established Gallery 291 in New York City, and it was the place to be if you were a modern American painter or photographer. Cunnigham and Stieglitz met in 1910. He supported her work, collaborated with her on projects, and the two formed a close working relationship. Stieglitz operated his New York City gallery, An American Place, from 1929 until his death in 1946. Stieglitz chose to stand in front of a painting by his wife, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Among the American modernist painters Stieglitz promoted were Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Paul Stand, and O’Keeffe. He also introduced Americans to the work of some European modernists such as Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Matisse. 

 

Her success in portrait photography resulted in an invitation to Hollywood in 1930 and in 1932 to do portraits for Vanity Fair, Sunset, and other magazines. Cunningham tried out color photography for some of the Sunset pictures. Some examples of Cunningham’s portraits are those of Frida Kahlo, Gertude Stein, Cary Grant, and Spencer Tracy.  Cunningham enjoyed capturing the motion of the human body, “Martha Graham” (1935) is one of many portraits she made of Graham.  She works here with a double negative, one a facial portrait and the other a simple dance move. The sharpness in the face is contrasted with the soft focus of the dance pose, allowing two aspects of Graham’s personality to be shown. Cunningham explained, “One must be able to gain an understanding at short notice and close range, of the beauties of character, intellect, and spirit so as to be able to draw out [their] best qualities…”

 

Cunningham and her husband were divorced in 1934, and the burden of supporting herself and her three sons caused her to diversify subjects in her work. She began taking pictures of industrial sites, and she took up street photography and documentary work. “Where Children Play” (1955) (8.7”x7.1”) revealed the love of her children and her social consciousness. As always, the photograph sends a clear message. The young boy stands alone in the doorway of a shack. A ragged awning hangs from the top of the door. Trash lies on the ground. Cunningham’s ability to spot a moment in time that depicts a message was always with her. She called these street pictures her “stolen pictures” She tried to hide herself so the subject was unaware of her presence. She still was using the same small 4”x5” view camera.

Cunningham was invited by Ansel Adams to take a faculty position in the photography department at the California School of Fine Arts.  Dorothea Lange and Minor White, both photographers for President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration, also were on the faculty. Her own work and her teaching position allowed Cunningham to travel to Paris and Europe in the1960s. The Paris “stolen pictures” were taken with her Rolleiflex.

 

Cunningham photographed a wide variety of subjects, including herself. Her first self-portrait in 1906, when she was in college, was nude.  “Self Portrait on Geary Street” (San Francisco) (1958) (gelatine silver print) (8”x7”) captures two sides of her work. Through a glass storefront window, an assortment of objects can be seen: a curtain rod, a white glass lamp globe, and a broken chandelier. The diagonals created by the large window pane, the objects on the floor, and the sunlight through the window lead the viewer’s eye directly to Cunningham, standing behind the glass. The storefront is in sharp focus.

Cunningham stands in the doorway area of the shop, behind the glass window, placing her in softer focus. She wears a dark cloak and carries her small camera. Behind her is the other shop window that also contains an assortment of objects, including plates and a knick-knack shelf.  That side of the shop window is soft-focused. The circular shapes of objects and Cunningham are in contrast to the straight edges of the windows and doors. This found subject, as was always the case with Cunningham, contains numerous elements to ponder. 

Cunningham constantly struggled with her reputation because she was a woman, and women were considered by many not to be as good as men. She joined San Francisco Women Artists, organized to support, promote, and increase women’s role in the arts. She was a resource for women artists, offering advice and connections in the art and business worlds.

She applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964 when she was 81 years old, but she was turned down.  She was awarded the Fellowship in 1970 when she was 87. The $5000 award allowed her to make new prints from her old negatives. During these years she was awarded several honorary doctoral degrees and was given important solo exhibitions. “Imogene Cunninham Day” was proclaimed by San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto on November 12, 1970. In 1973 the San Francisco Art Commission declared her Artist of the Year.

 

Cunninham never stopped finding new subjects to photograph. In 1975 she started what she thought would be a two-year project to publish her photographs in a book. She was getting older, but she was determined to move forward. She began seeking out older people and visited them in their homes, in hospitals, and convents. She talked with them, got to know them, and took their pictures. She completed her task. After Ninety (1977) was published the year after she died.

Imogene Cummingham was internationally celebrated. Her appearance on Johnny Carson in 1976 brought even more fame, more exhibitions, and more awards. She was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2004.

When asked so often which of her photographs was her favorite, she replied, “The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”

 

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

Pierre August Renoir was born in 1841 in Limoges, France. The town of Limoges was the center of the famous hand-painted porcelain works. Renoir’s parents were members of an active artist and artisan community. His father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress.  The family moved to Paris in 1845, and they lived near the Louvre. At age 15, Renoir served as an apprentice at the Paris Limoges Factory, earning enough money to help his parents buy their house. His initial training as an artist required mastery of intricate brushwork, attention to detail, use of rich colors, and a love of flowers.

In 1862, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he became great friends with fellow students Sisley, Bazille, and Monet. Chaffing from the realism of the classic style, they searched for new techniques and subjects. They began in 1864 to work outdoors in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Discoveries about the effects of light on subjects from the development of photography spurred the artists to create what became their signature style: Impressionism.

In 1876 Renoir began to paint figure subjects along with landscape and flower paintings. “A Girl with a Watering Can” (1876) (39”x29’’) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) is a portrait of a young girl who lived in his neighborhood. It illustrates Renoir’s fully developed Impressionist style along with lessons learned from porcelain painting. The charming, young girl is enjoying the sunny day. She holds a green watering can and two daisies. Her eyes are blue and her cheeks rosy. Her elegant blue dress is decorated with wide white bands that look like lace, the type of detail Renoir painted in Limoges. Her outfit is completed with a pair of matching blue shoes. The tops of her white stockings call attention to her lacey bloomers. Renoir used the color red to guide the viewer’s eye through the composition: red roses in the front, red lips, and red flowers in the background. The red bow in her hair draws the eye from left to right, to the group of red flowers behind her and the one red flower in the distance to her left.

Renoir used color dots of yellow, purple, red, pink, and blue, visible only up close, to portray the beige path that runs diagonally across the painting. He painted the lawn vibrant green, blue, and yellow, using visible but subtle brushstrokes. He used broader brush strokes to portray the leaves and flower petals of the plants in the foreground. In contrast, his brushwork on the flowers behind the girl does not attempt to create an individual flower or leaf. 

Renoir’s paintings of people are appealing. They also fulfill his desire to create a complex work of art. 

“La Promenade” (1876) (67”x43”) (Frick Museum, New York City) is a winter scene in a city park. The focus is on two young blond girls, who look as if they could be twins, and their older sister.  All are dressed in winter clothing. The eldest wears a blue velvet jacket with fur trimmed sleeves. The younger girls wear matching blue-green outfits trimmed with fur. One has a fur muff and the other carries a doll. Hats of flowers and fur are perched on their heads. White hose and leather boots complete their outfits.  Beyond them on the path, eleven other people are suggested.  Two black and white shapes on the path suggest playful dogs. 

Renoir grew up with a tailor and a seamstress as parents, and he fell in love and married a dressmaker. His paintings show an unusual amount of knowledge of and interest in depicting the fashion of the time.  “La Promenade” was in the second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876. Although the work did not receive much notice at that time, Renoir’s ability to present fashionable and delightful women and children eventually brought him international fame.

As a result of his earlier successes, Renoir gained patrons and friends from the new professional class. Paul Bernard, a banker and diplomat, became a friend and patron in 1879. “Children’s Afternoon at Wargemont” was one of his many paintings Bernard and his wife commissioned. The setting is the Chateau de Wargemont in Normandy, the Bernard’s second home outside Paris. In the painting the Bernard daughters Marguerite, Lucie, and Marthe enjoy a pleasant afternoon.

Renoir made several trips to Algeria and Italy beginning in 1881. On the trips to Italy, he studied the paintings of Raphael, Rubens, and the Rococo artists Boucher and Fragonard. Their work influenced Renoir to alter his style, and he entered what art historians call his “classical” period. “Children’s Afternoon at Wargemont” (1884) (50”x68”) is still full of bright sunlight, and the theme of a peaceful family day continues. Gone are the suggestive and flowing brushstrokes. They are replaced with precise details in clothing, furniture, wood floor, carpet and curtain patterns, wall paneling, and a pot of flowers. 

The two girls are dressed in the fashion of the time and in accord with their ages. The girl in the blue and white sailor dress holds onto her doll, and her eyes directly engage the viewer. Her sister is sewing, and her other sister, slouched on the nearby couch, reads a book. Renoir created a composition of blues and oranges, complementary colors, and complex designs.   

Renoir suffered from arthritis beginning in 1881, and the disease became increasingly debilitating. He had the first attack of rheumatism in 1894. Renoir had married Aline Charigot, a seamstress and model he met in 1880. They had three sons, Pierre (1885), Jean (1894) and Claude (1901). “Gabrielle Renard and Infant Son Jean” (1895) (26”x21”) depicts Gabrielle, Aline’s cousin, who moved to the Renoir home in Montmartre at age 16 to act as Jean’s nanny. She often modeled for Renoir, and she helped him to paint when his hands became crippled by placing the brushes between his fingers. Renoir never stopped painting, but in his later works he necessarily returned to looser brush work. His love of his family is evident in this work and many others.

“The Artist’s Family” (1896) (68”x54”) is Renoir’s largest portrait with life-size figures. The setting is the garden of the family home, Château des Brouillards in Montmartre, where the family moved in 1890. Aline stands at the center with their eleven-year-old son Pierre, standing next to her. Aline’s hat is a remarkable fashion creation of the time, and a red coat with a fur collar are draped over her arm. Pierre leans in affectionately, holding onto his mother’s arm. 

Gabrielle kneels down to support young Jean as he stands for the painting. Jean’s elaborate white bonnet and dress are certainly fashionable. The composition of the family forms a triangle that Renoir creates with Aline’s light hat and blouse at the top, the sailor suit and black skirt in the middle, and the white clothing of Jean and Garbielle at the bottom. The protruding edge of Gabrielle’s black skirt anchors the triangle. Necessary to balance the composition is the young girl in red, one of the neighbor’s children. Her red dress and pose, direct the viewer’s eye to Aline. The black sash on her dress and the black ribbon on her hat also carry through the dark elements of the composition. She carries a ball with red, yellow, and green stripes. The ball is a simple device that connects the touches of beige and yellow, and the green landscape in the distance. Renoir kept this painting for the rest of his life. 

The Renoir family moved in 1907 from Montmartre to Cagnes-sur-Mer, near the Mediterranean, to enable Renoir to take spa treatments and for better weather. Renoir tried sculpture as another outlet, but he never stopped painting no matter how disabled he became. He died in 1919. His last words were “I think I’m beginning to learn something about it.”

His painting and his family were his passion. He described his thoughts on his art: “The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.”

Happy Mother’s Day

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.