Renoir and Love - Renoir Drawings - Musée d'Orsay

Exhibition: Renoir and Love. The Joy of Modernity (1865–1885), on display at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (17 March – 19 July 2026).

An iconic figure of Impressionism, Renoir (1841–1919) stands out as one of the great chroniclers of modern life, alongside Manet, Degas, Caillebotte and Monet.

Between the 1860s and 1880s, he developed a vibrant style of painting in which colour and light convey the gentleness of human relationships. Renoir set his scenes in theatres, open-air cafés, boulevards and gardens—new spaces of social interaction where the romantic freedom of a rapidly changing era played out.

His compositions, both sensual and modest, reimagine the 18th-century galant gatherings to explore desire, the gaze and the relationships between men and women.

For Renoir, love transcends mere sentiment: it becomes a vital principle, a bond between people and with nature. The exhibition explores the central role of love in Renoir’s work and reveals, behind the apparent joy, the profoundly modern and human significance of his painting.

In parallel, a first exhibition dedicated to Renoir’s drawings will highlight the importance of graphic techniques in the evolution of his art.

Beaux Arts Éditions revisits the man, the artist, the modernity of his painting and the contribution of his art to Impressionism and the art of the 19th and 20th centuries.