Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch), 1875, oil on canvas, Potter Palmer Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Title: Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch), 1875*
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was born 184 years ago today, was the artist of joie de vivre or the joy of living. Famous for portraying an ideal existence so different from 21st century pressures and the rule of technology. When leisure was valued, not to be interrupted by any distractions of work, the texts and e-mails that seem to pursue us now, without regard for time or place. For relaxation should be the priority, a way to ease stress and anxiety, extending long past an hour or even two, into an endless afternoon.
*Renoir would paint his most renowned work, The Luncheon of the Boating Party also at the Restaurant Fournaise in 1880.
CCO Public Domain Designation
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