Renoir and Love at the musée d’Orsay

From 17 March to 19 July 2026, the Musée d’Orsay challenges conventional wisdom in art history by dedicating a major exhibition to one of the founding fathers of Impressionism: ‘Renoir and Love. Happy Modernity (1865–1885)’.

Co-organised with the National Gallery in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, this event brings together an exceptional collection of around sixty works.

Far from the image of a painter who was merely ‘sentimental’ or mawkish, the exhibition reveals how Renoir made love a radical pictorial principle and a powerful tool for social cohesion in the face of the violence of his time.

Painting as an ‘Art of Connection’

Whereas his contemporaries such as Degas, Manet or the Naturalist writers focused on depicting urban solitude, irony or transactional relationships, Renoir deliberately chose the path of empathy and wonder. For him, love was not merely a romantic subject or an erotic scene, but a working method.

His fluid, sketchy brushwork, his enveloping light and the balance of his colours merge the figures with their surroundings. It is painting that unites, that creates bonds, celebrating camaraderie and gender equality in a rapidly changing world.

“I know full well that it is difficult to get people to accept that a painting can be great art whilst remaining joyful,” said Renoir.

Why is this exhibition essential?

By bringing together key works scattered across the globe for the first time in Paris since the major retrospective of 1985, the Musée d’Orsay has pulled off a daring feat. Curated with precision by Paul Perrin, the exhibition restores Renoir to his rightful place: that of a radical innovator who set tenderness, diversity and collective joy against the gloom and isolation of modern cities. A breath of optimism and a dazzling lesson in painting not to be missed this summer.

Crédits visuels :

Visuel 1 – Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, 1880-1881, Huile sur toile, 130,2 × 175,6 cm Washington, The Phillips Collection, achat 1923, 1637 Photo Courtesy of The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Visuel 2 – Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Une loge à l’Opéra, 1880, Huile sur toile, 99,4 × 80,7 cm Williamstown, Clark Art Institute, 1955.594 Acquis par Sterling et Francine Clark avant 1955 Image courtesy Clark Art Institute. clarkart.edu

Visuel 3 – Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876 Huile sur toile 131,5 x 176,5 cm Paris, musée d’Orsay. Legs Gustave Caillebotte, 1896, RF 2739 © photo : Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Mathieu Rabeau