Grand-Palais, 24 september - 4 january 2010

Impressionism was at the maturity. Renoir, the painter of Le Déjeuner des Canotiers remodeled his style 1913. This unknown period is the the focus of that new exhibition in Grand-Palais, Paris. In the old film in black and white, the little man laughing is extremely modest. Wearing a baseball cap, his hands bandaged, the perfectly trimmed beard and a cigarette in his mouth, this septuagenarian seems tease the young man who dips his brushes for the paint. This human body bruised, is Pierre Auguste Renoir. Near him, recognizes his son John, the future filmmaker. Despite the pain, the artist raises key color, dense and saturated, on a canvas that will become La Ferme à  Collettes. We are in 1914. This scene, which impressed the film by Sacha Guitry, will attract the attention of the visitor. It is in any case echoes this quote from the master himself, who a year ago, when he was 72 years, said: "I began to learn painting. "It is this latter period, little known to the general public and often unloved insiders, who is making the Grand Palais. In fact, boaters do not have lunch in the museum, the Moulin de la Galette will not spin its wings under the canopy of the Grand Palais, and the gesture appears much less subtle. Sylvie Patry and Claudia Einecke, curators of the exhibition brought together a hundred paintings, including some rarely exposed, unpublished photographs, sculptures, all dating from the last thirty years of the painter's life.
Born in 1841, it began in 1890 a turning point in his style, after leading "the fight of Impressionism." The same one that had led to "an impasse". Then it was back to work, discovered the sculpture, has simplified its line, rounded curves of his muses and continued his quest for the perfect work. "I would have liked to be the man of one picture," he said. In recent years reveal the obsessive aspect of his personality. The need to paint several times the same table and work only with familiar models. Until his death in 1919, it will focus on the nude, anxious to "painting of his time." Up will deliver his work, The Bathers, summing up his ideal of feminine beauty. Here he abandons the impressionistic touch to support the draft and pay tribute to the colors still bright.  Whoever shared with Cezanne sources of a modern classic becomes an example for new generations: Bonnard, Matisse and Picasso. This simple exhibit attempts to reconcile the public with this so late. And remove all suspicions about the authorship of works due to arthritis gangrenous fingers. After Renoir, there was Renoir.  One of the surprises of the exhibition are sculptures of the master. Including the large cast of a nude female executed under his direction by Richard Guino. "Ambroise Vollard, the famous art dealer, wished that Renoir sculptures, say the curators of the exhibition. It was he who had the preposterous idea to add support. Renoir initially thought Maillol, but finally one of his students who will participate in these "joint works". "Guino settled in Cagnes in 1913 and develops a small statue that will then expand. "Renoir was much documented on the proportions of ancient statues, with aims to measure it, take over those who orchestrated the show. Some have wrongly considered that the sculpture was fun. We regret that we managed to get a major work, The Judgment of Paris, held by the museum in Hiroshima. " The quality is coauthor Richard Guino recognized in 1971 by the Third Civil Chamber of the Paris court after a lengthy lawsuit in 1965 by his son Michel. The art historian Paul Haesaerts stated in 1947 in Renoir Sculptor (Ed. Hermes, Brussels): "Guino was never just an actor reading a text or a musician interpreting a partition mechanically. He was involved body and soul in the creative act. One can even say with certainty that, had he not been there, the sculptures of Renoir would not have happened. Guino was essential.