During the later years of his life, Auguste Renoir, the figurehead of the Impressionists, settled on the Mediterranean coast in his property at Cagnes.
Suffering from paralysis, he painted still-lifes where he expressed his fervour for painting. He painted flowers, fruits, bouquets of roses or strawberries like this one, simply placed on a white tablecloth. Renoir’s soft fluid brushwork exalted life through these modest subjects. He used bright joyful colours that harmonised with the world around him. The artist himself said; “Paint is made for decorating walls, isn’t it? So, it has to be as rich as possible. For me, a painting must be a likeable, happy and pretty thing, yes pretty!” The painter and theorist Maurice Denis summed up the new spirit of Renoir’s painting like this: “Idealist? Naturalist? As you like. He knew how to translate his own emotions, nature and dreams, with his own methods: he composed marvellous bouquets of women and flowers simply with the joyfulness of his own eyes”.
