Originally posted on Country Woman Paints 

Auguste Renoir

Auguste Renoir

I discover so many fascinating things from the bloggers I follow in my reader. And from the ones they link to. Blogger “oawritingspoemspaintings” (a new blog to follow!) shared short films of the artists Renoir, Monet and Rodin, live in their studios, that were amazing. I plan to post each of them, beginning with Renoir. He is my favorite artist of the three and I’ve now watched it a dozen times.

French impressionist painter Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) painted despite partial paralysis and cruel rheumatoid arthritis until the end of his life. Painting with his brushes taped to his crippled hand, especially moves me.  To the end of his life, Renoir’s  three sons helped their ill father, who was wheelchair-bound later in life. His children often helped him in his painting, posing for him from the time they were small and later as he grew more disabled, binding his brush to his arthritic hand and with his paints, brushes and palette. Renoir’s wife passed away a few years before his death.

From an NPR interview linked here:

“Renoir had crippling rheumatoid arthritis — at the LACMA exhibit {Los Angeles County Museum of Art}, there’s a flickering black and white film that shows Renoir painting in 1915, despite his…

via French Impressionist Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir ~ Short Film in Studio.