Auguste Renoir
Strand: Paint and Colour
Objectives:
The child should be enabled to:
1.look at and talk about the work of artists
(Primary School Curriculum pg.69)
2. explore colour with a variety of colour drawing instruments, media
and techniques (Primary School Curriculum pg.68)
Materials:
paints(red, blue, yellow, black, white)
paper
paintbrushes
books or artwork by Renoir
Stimulus:
Renoir's paintings
Suggested web pages to find artwork by Renoir are:
http://cgfa.dotsrc.org/renoir/renoir_bio.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/renoir/
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/renoir.html
Suggested books to find artwork and information on Renoir are:
Impressionism by Robert L. Herbert (has many paintings by Renoir and gives zoomed in versions to see the artistic style of Renoir).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: La promenade, John House
Renoir, his life, art, and letters, Barbara Ehrlich White
Renoir, Alberto Martini
Renoir, Great Artist Guides, Ticktock Media
Activity:
1. Give a brief summary on Pierre-Auguste Renoir's life. A short summary
can be found on any of the web sites shown above.
2. Split the students into groups and have one or two books, or examples of Renoir's painting, per group for them to look at. (Some of Renoir's most famous paintings are "Dancing at the Moulin de la Gallette" and "Luncheon on the Boating Party")
3. Define Impressionism. (A good book to show this is Impressionism by Robert L. Herbert). Many of the above web sites have impressionism links linked directly from Renoir's biography page.
4. Explain that the essence of impressionism was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and colour. This resulted in paintings made of short, choppy, brushstrokes of colour with loosely defined edges.
5. While the students are looking at the artwork of Renoir in their groups, ask the students to come up with some of the elements or characteristics of an impressionist piece.
6. Collect the books or paintings that the students have. Tell the students
that they now are going to paint a picture using the impressionistic style,
using the impressionistic style--short brushstrokes of bright colours.