Landscapes Collection: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Oil Painting Reproductions

Painted beside Monet, and then away from him

The early landscapes come out of the same summers as Monet's: two easels on the same riverbank at La Grenouillere in 1869, painting the same water. Renoir's version is always warmer and looser, more interested in the flicker of light through leaves than in the structure of the motif.

Later the geography widens. There are canvases from Brittany and the Channel coast, from Louveciennes and the Seine valley, from Provence and the hills above Cagnes. The late southern landscapes, painted when his hands were badly deformed by arthritis, are the most abbreviated of all: olive trees reduced to warm smoke, and the ground a haze of rose and gold.

Why the landscapes suit walls the figures do not

A landscape has no eye contact. That sounds trivial and is not: it means the picture can be seen obliquely, at a distance and in passing, which is exactly how most walls are actually used. It also means the picture does not compete with the people in the room. If you want a Renoir in a working space, a corridor or a large open-plan room, this is the collection to look in first.

Which room this collection suits

Wide formats above a sofa or a sideboard; smaller upright ones in a stairwell or between windows. Because the palette is high-key and the tonal range narrow, they hold up well in bright rooms where a darker painting would go flat. On a strong wall colour they need a mount of light space around them, so give the frame a little room. Ninety to one hundred and thirty centimetres wide is the comfortable range on a main wall.

Frequently asked questions

Did Renoir really paint many landscapes?

Yes. He worked outdoors throughout his career, and landscape accounts for a substantial part of the catalogue. It is simply less famous than the figures, which is part of the appeal: these are the least reproduced pictures he made.

Where are these places?

Mostly France: the Seine at Chatou and Croissy, Louveciennes, Normandy and Brittany, and from the 1890s the Midi around Cagnes and the Esterel. A few come from further afield, including Algeria and Italy.

What size for a large living room wall?

Aim for the picture to occupy half to two thirds of the wall or the furniture below it. On a three metre wall that means roughly 130 to 180 centimetres. Landscapes survive enlargement better than crowd scenes because there are no small faces to lose.

Are they framed or ready to hang?

You choose. Rolled ships flat and assumes you have a framer, stretched arrives ready to hang with the image running to the edge, and framed arrives finished. Landscapes are the group that looks best unframed and stretched, in the modern gallery manner.