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Comment by john_strinlai

3 days ago

i saw your other comment, and now this one. i dont really know much about art, and i'd love for you to help me understand your apparent disdain for renoir

15 comments

john_strinlai

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dofm  3 days ago

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/...

  • sherr  3 days ago

    You can pick "bad" artworks from any artist, maybe even objectively bad. And I dislike many of his paintings (sickly sweet, "fluffy" style) but he also did some lovely paintings. In my opinion of course.

    • dofm  3 days ago

      I mean, I am perpetuating a running joke.

      But also yes. When he was not doing paintings with lots of faces or naked ladies he was on slightly more solid ground.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Pierre-Au...

      https://lastmuseum.com/artist/auguste-renoir

      e.g. I like the Alfred Sisley painting and the more realist painting of his father, and Madame Clementine Valensi Stora which he apparently repudiated.

      But I don't think he ever painted a truly good female nude, and some are just utterly reductive (as a photography nerd I find Torso Effect of Sunlight to be the most interesting but the face oh the face)

      Loads of it is really rather Monkey Christ, on reflection, and after about 1905 nothing is great.

      So I do sympathise with the joke.

      4 replies →

  • jerf  3 days ago

    Ah, the classic "picture is worth a thousand words" move. Well played.

    • dofm  3 days ago

      I could have picked a considerably worse face, too.

      But this is a painting of his own young son, Jean (who went on to be a legendary director, screenwriter, actor).

      So one presumes there's a method in it, because nobody hates a kid that much.

Cpoll  3 days ago

Renoir's kind of "pop" as far as Impressionists go. Laypeople like him because his work is easy to look at, but trained artists can find a lot to fault in his technique and composition. He was also kind of an asshole.