Renoir, My Father

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The son's account emerges from conversations with his father. We encounter the young Auguste Renoir, filled with a passion for drawing and painting, witnessing the growth of his artistic self-confidence, his struggle against the constraints of convention, and ultimately the breakthrough of a new, original painting style that liberates light and beauty into unprecedented forms of color and shape. This portrayal of life is set against a richly diverse backdrop—the intellectually vibrant era of France, Paris, the grand opera of Gounod, and the flourishing Montmartre; above all, it features Renoir's painter friends—Sisley, Monet, Degas, and others—alongside the great patrons among art dealers like Vollard, Durand-Ruel, and Bernheim, depicted in lively and often amusing portraits.