Mixed flowers in an earthenware pot, 1869

Renoir: "Mixed flowers in an earthenware pot," 1869

"Mixed Flowers in an Earthenware Pot," Auguste Renoir, 1869

Renoir completed over 6,000 canvases over a forty-year career. This colorful, simple painting is a perfect example of the breakthroughs in style that Renoir and his friend Claude Monet made while working side-by-side in 1869. While the bulk of their works in this period were landscapes painted at La Grenouillere on the Seine near Bougival, "Mixed flowers in an earthenware pot," is an uncomplicated still-life employing the same new techniques. Today their outdoor efforts are considered the first landscape paintings to employ the impressionist style of painting. This still-life is similarly original in style.

Indeed, this innovative new style became known as "Impressionism," almost as a slur -- for the finished works seemed to be dashed off, or first impressions of the subject matter, rather than the realistic detail-laden images that were then popular at the Salons. Unfortunately the initial public reaction was that Impressionist paintings were mere sketches lacking the polish of the more fashionable canvases of the day. Instead of such drearily faithful "perfect" renderings of nature, Renoir in this period sought to record the most subtle sensations of reflected light, often on water or in nuanced floral scenes, such as this painting. The result was a gauzy, soft-focused and bright collection of colors designed, as Renoir declared, to be pretty. And "mixed flowers" is unquestionably a lovely, glowing rendition, very easy on the eyes.

Thus a new visual impression was created by the use of unmixed primary colors, small strokes, partially modeled shapes and reflected light, ultimately the main characteristics of Impressionism. Some believe Renoir discovered that shadows were not black, but instead were influenced by the surrounding colors.

Around this time, pre-mixed paints became available to artists in tubes, obviating the practice of artists mixing their own pigments. Color schemes in the main had been dark, with grays and browns predominant. The new materials allowed the use of pure colors as never before. Seeking to capture natural light meant putting a fleeting moment of time on canvas, with a touch of the new paint in short little curved strokes. But applying the colors in tiny strokes allowed Renoir and his contemporaries to keep the colors unmixed and intense, allowing the observer's eye to mix the colors. The bright colors and active involvement of the observer recreated the experience of the vibration of natural sunlight.

A study of "mixed flowers" reveals the influence of adjoining colors upon one another, as opposed to strict separation of objects. Everything influences its surroundings, and is influenced by them. In short, it all shimmers together in the light, glowing softly from within and without. It was Renoir's challenge to freeze the changing light and varying tones in pigment, an altogether bold step toward observing ordinary things under certain spell.

This pair, Monet and Renoir, continued to work together and learn from one another, painting popular river resorts and views of a bustling Paris from outdoors. While Monet attended to the changing patterns of nature, Renoir soon sought out friends and lovers as new subjects in a whole new style of portraiture. More than any of the Impressionists, he was entranced by Paris. He managed to avoid the copyist treatment of what he saw but focused instead upon appearance, allowing the viewer to respond with immediate pleasure. "Pleasure" may be described as Renoir's artistic goal, a far cry from Realism's toiling peasants and suffering souls, for example. Instead he recorded the French middle class at play in the country or at cafes and concerts in Paris.

The Impressionists considered themselves realists because they remained true to their senses, even though they disregarded many of the traditional techniques for representing whatever was "out there." They had no use for the "exact" reproduction of an object for its own sake, and decried any demands that they capture "objective" reality. The importance of rendering objects declined, while attempts to represent the subjective grew. Through Impressionism, the definition of realism was transformed into subjective realism, and the ultimate subjectivity of modem art was born.