The first Sunday in France, many museums are free.
I've been in the south of France for 18 months now, so have visited most of them.
But I hadn't been to the Musée Renoir.
Maybe because I'm not a huge fan of this Impressionist painter's work - his pastels are a little too sickly-sweet for me.
But it was a beautiful day and they have a garden so go I did (pardon the Yoda syntax).
And I'm so glad "go I did"!
Kudos to guide Maxime Farsetti - English tours in France can leave a lot to be desired, but not his!
Here are the 10 FUN FACTS that stuck with me.
1. Renoir suffered from terrible rheumatoid arthritis.
That's how he ended up with this property in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Doctors told him he had to escape the Paris winters (though he returned there to escape the scorching southern summers).
The cloths are to protect his hands - brushes weren't tied to his hands. Models or family had to put a brush in his hand, and sometimes he had to hold it with both hands due to the cramping.
At the end of his life, he had to be carried to his studio in a sedan chair, where he painted from a wheelchair.
He said
“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
2. He had strict – even old-fashioned – rules about painting.
He believed a true artist only needed six colors of paint – the natural ones, not the new-fangled chemical or combo-color ones. If you resorted to using these, you were less of an artist.
He was actually pretty crabby about this, earning him the adjective “grincheux” – or grumpy. (Love the connection with the Seuss Grinch)
He was not a big fan of progress in general. Though his wife required the "latest" kitchen.
3. He never used black paint.
This surprised me. He’d mix other colors to get something close, but not black itself. Epiphany: maybe that’s why his work can seem cotton-candy to me?
One reason he avoided it may be that black is the color of death.
4. He imagined the women he painted naked.
That’s what he told Modigliani, when he criticized him for making his women so ugly.
Which also explains why his paintings of women are so sensual.
Despite these "fantasies," he didn’t seem to have any affairs after he met wife Aline. She started as his model, then became muse and mate, remaining the love of his life.
5. He had a lot of artist friends.
He was very sociable. Was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. Was particularly close “co-founder” Monet, as well as near-by neighbors Matisse and Berthe Morisot.
6. He also had several combative relationships with other artist neighbors.
He was highly-critical of Modigliani and Cezanne and their work. He liked beauty.
7. He was a little obsessed with keeping his three sons safe.
Check out the furniture - many of the edges are rounded. He wanted no sharp corners, in case they fell and hit their heads.
Seems a little nuts – but makes sense when you know this:
a bike accident earlier in life
led to the outbreak of his auto-immune-related
rheumatoid arthritis.
Another way to keep the boys safe? Making them grow their hair long to protect their heads. Like hair helmets. Really??
His most frequent subject was his youngest boy Claude (Coco).
Um, about that pink ribbon...? Wonder if Coco developed a “Boy Named Sue” complex?
8. All 3 sons of this artist went on to be successful artists as well – 2 of them famous.
Pierre was a lauded actor with the Comédie Francaise.
Jean Renoir became a renowned film-maker, perhaps best known for La Grande Illusion, his masterpiece about WW I. He shot his film Déjeuner sur l’Herbe here.
Coco became a wonderful, if less famous, ceramist.
9. Renoir bought this property to keep a man from turning these beautiful olive trees into napkin rings.
Renoir waged a very public campaign against this guy. Who even offered to give him the land for free if he could have the trees (!).
Some of these were planted by soldiers of Francois 1er - making them almost 500 years old.
The property was originally 22 hectares (that's a lot!). It was a working farm, which Renoir loved. He had a ferocious work ethic. Obviously. He was, by all accounts, a simple man that way.
10. His wife saved their son’s leg – but lost her life.
During WW I, son Jean was wounded in northern France. Doctors wanted to amputate his leg. Aline traveled north to stop them, making an incredibly dangerous and arduous journey – from which she got so sick she died.
But the doctors did not amputate his leg.
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