The joy that permeates Renoir’s paintings emerged from the heart of a deeply complex man. Even his close friends and family members were baffled by the contradictions that defined him. In Renoir: An Intimate Biography, Barbara Ehrlich White, the world’s leading authority on the artist’s life and work, brings a lifetime of research to bear – challenging misconceptions around Renoir’s reputation to provide an unparalleled account of this great Impressionist artist, in both his own words and those of his friends.
Uniquely intimate, this biography is interspersed with over one thousand excerpts of letters by, to, and about Renoir – 452 of which come from previously unpublished letters. These firsthand accounts offer an extraordinary window into Renoir’s world, bringing us into direct contact with Renoir not only as a groundbreaking artist but as a devoted friend and father, too.