1841 Pierre Auguste Renoir is born on Feb. 25 in Limoges, France.
1861 Studies at the studio of Swiss history painter Charles Gleyre, where he meets future Impressionists Frederic Bazille, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. Begins painting portraits.
1862 The nascent Impressionists begin painting together in the forests of Fontainebleau, south of Paris. Renoir captures their camaraderie in “The Inn of Mere Antony” (1866).
1863 The core of the Impressionist movement is formed with Edouard Manet as their leader. The group also includes Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezanne and Henri Fantin-Latour.
1865-1873 Renoir increasingly relies on portrait commissions to make a living.
1869 Renoir and Monet produce what many consider to be the first Impressionist landscapes.
1874 The first Impressionist exhibition is held in Paris. The group would hold eight such exhibitions through 1886.
1876 The second Impressionist exhibit includes Renoir’s “Ball at the Moulin de la Galette.” After 1877, he elects not to exhibit with the Impressionists, preferring the exposure and prestige of the Salon.
1879 For the first time in 8 years, a Renoir painting, “Madame Charpentier and her Children” is accepted by the Salon.
1879-1882 Renoir embarks upon a series of paintings featuring scenes from “la vie moderne” that become his most popular and recognizable works, including “Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando,” “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” featuring his mistress and later wife Aline Charigot holding a small dog and “Two Sisters (On the Terrace).”
1882-1890 Renoir abandons the warm style that characterizes his 1870s work and returns to a more solid, neoclassical style during what is considered to be his “dry” or “sour” period.
1885 His first son, Pierre, is born. Five years later, he marries long-time mistress Charigot with whom he has two more sons, Jean (1890) and Claude (1901). Having earned enough from his portraits to live a comfortable bourgeoisie life, he moves with his family to the south of France. His later works primarily feature members of his family.
1890 Renoir submits his last painting to the Salon. In his later years, he is plagued by rheumatoid arthritis and confined to a wheel chair. Despite hands so crippled he can barely hold a brush, Renoir continues to paint.
1919 Renoir dies on Dec. 3 in Cagnes, France.
