02/25/2026
Traveling across the Pond this spring?
In 2026, the Musée d’Orsay is dedicating a major tribute to Pierre-Auguste Renoir — one of the key figures of Impressionism.
Starting March 17, the museum will host two important exhibitions that explore different sides of his work. The main show, “Renoir and Love: The Happy Modern Life (1865–1885)”, marks 150 years since he painted Bal du moulin de la Galette in 1876, now one of the museum’s most celebrated masterpieces. The exhibition focuses on the first twenty years of Renoir’s career, when he helped shape Impressionism alongside Monet, Degas, and Morisot.
Renoir is often described as a “painter of happiness” because of his luminous colors and lively scenes. But this exhibition goes deeper. Through images of couples dancing, friends sharing meals, and quiet conversations, Renoir explored love as a modern experience — something that defined relationships and reflected a changing society. The show also challenges the idea that modern art must be dark or pessimistic. Renoir believed joy could be serious, meaningful, and artistically powerful.
Around fifty major works will be displayed, including La Grenouillère, La Promenade, Dance at Bougival, The Umbrellas, and Luncheon of the Boating Party, with exceptional loans from international museums.
At the same time, a second exhibition will highlight Renoir’s drawings — sketches, pastels, and watercolors that reveal how he studied figures, tested ideas, and built his compositions. Many of these works are rarely shown.
Together, these exhibitions present Renoir not just as a painter of light, but as a careful observer of modern life and human connection.
