Renoir dessinateur

Exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 17 March – 5 July 2026

While Renoir's paintings remain among the icons of Impressionism, his works on paper (drawings, watercolours, pastels, etc.) have not received the same attention to date. It is true that the artist, recognised above all as a great painter and colourist, long suffered from a reputation as a poor draughtsman, and that his body of graphic work is small and heterogeneous. Yet drawing played a decisive role in the development of Renoir's art, from his early student exercises in the 1850s and 1860s to his most modern explorations in the 1910s.

This catalogue of the first exhibition dedicated to Renoir's works on paper highlights the importance of graphic techniques in the evolution of his art and reveals the intimate links between his paintings and drawings, particularly from the 1880s onwards. The book brings together more than a hundred drawings, pastels, watercolours and prints that demonstrate how Renoir used this medium to test his ideas, plan his compositions and represent both landscape and the human figure.