New Show Reveals Renoir's Lost Traditional Period

A pioneer of Impressionism, Pierre-Auguste Renoir longed to do what most groundbreaking artists take years to escape—traditionalism. Renoir’s late work has generally been removed from art history—until now as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens Renoir in the 20th Century on February 14. The show, previously at Grand Palais in Paris, includes around 70 of Renoir’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, and will move to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on June 17. Renoir left Paris for Italy in 1881 at the age of 40 to view the works of Renaissance masters, which left him in awe. “I had gone as far as I could with impressionism,” the acclaimed artist later recalled, “and I realized I could neither paint nor draw.” Shifting his focus from light and movement, Renoir then turned to mythology and the female form. Both New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art have replaced later Renoirs to accommodate what are perceived as his more significant paintings. But now, Americans have the opportunity to review the odalisques, bathing nudes, Mediterranean landscapes, and portraits of leisurely young women.