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Two portraits in the exhibit move beyond pleasure: Paul Cezanne (1880) in pastel, and especially of his dear friend, Camille Pissarro (1893-94), in charcoal. These portraits reveal a soulful sense of the individual—detailed explorations deeper than a penchant for the flesh. Interestingly enough, in 1874, the year Renoir finished the Pissarro portrait, their friendship ended because of the Dreyfus affair. Renoir, along with Degas and Cezanne, denounced Monet, Zola, and Pissarro. The scandal split France as well as the close-knit artist community. True colors were shown.
The Morgan exhibit also includes Renoir’s watercolor landscapes, without figures, rendered with tiny brush strokes and the saturated color of Brittany and the Mediterranean coast. He experimented with etching, drypoint, and color lithography, but when it became difficult to hold a pen, he found charcoal and pastel softer and easier to use with his painful arthritis. His drawings feel like improvisations, sketches of impression and sensation made in the studio. To see an entire exhibition of them is to understand his delight in the female form, lush and voluptuous. The Morgan offers a thematic view of these works from a lifetime: student drawings; sketches of urban and rural landscapes; formal portraits; and in later years, portraits of his family and friends.
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