Renoir and Love

Christopher Riopelle

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Umbrellas, 1881-6

Among Impressionist painters, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was the undisputed master of sociable imagery. His depictions circa 1865-85 of people simply getting along together are universally popular – friends, lovers, young couples flirting in the streets or across a convivial table, dancers entwined, mothers and children, single figures lost in reverie over absent companions. The multifarious theme was rarer and more psychologically complex than sometimes realised. It confronted issues of democratisation, changing social, class and moral standards, the hastening pace of city life and rise of suburban leisure. Showing figures in intricate proximity and under subtly changing light conditions, it provided scope for rich formal experimentation as well. This lecture offers an overview of Renoir’s singular achievement as the chronicler of that pleasure which, when the moment, however fleeting, is right we all take in one another.

Christopher Riopelle, Contributing Curator at the National Gallery, is making a welcome return to Kenwood. For many years he was the Curator of Post-1800 paintings, curating and co-curating major international exhibitions. He gave lectures on two of them at Kenwood – Gauguin’s Portraits (2020) and Winslow Homer (2022). He is co-curator of the National Gallery exhibition Renoir and Love (3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027), first received to rapturous reviews at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.