Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Der Birnbaum (1877)

 

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The slanted tree trunk directs the viewer's gaze towards the center of the painting. Around the center, there unfolds a shimmering interplay of leaves in shades of autumnal yellow-orange. The wind-stirred foliage is executed in bold brushstrokes. The complementary contrast to the bright blue of the sky enhances the vibrancy of the colors.

In the early 1860s, Pierre-Auguste Renoir studied at the Parisian studio of Swiss history painter Charles Gleyre. With his fellow students Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley, he belonged to the nucleus of the group that would later be known as the Impressionists from the mid-1870s onwards. Renoir's early experiments with plein air painting were crucial to the development of his artistic language. While working outdoors, he didn't limit himself to studies as was traditionally done, but like Monet, he created independent paintings on-site. Although he was represented at the Salon in Paris in 1864 and 1868, and progressive critics praised the immediacy and freshness of his landscape paintings, he found few buyers for his works until the early 1870s. The first of the eight so-called Impressionist exhibitions in 1874 marked a turning point for him, as it did for many of his colleagues, bringing broader public recognition and financial security.

Renoir's painting "The Pear Tree" was created in 1877 in Louveciennes – a small town in the Yvelines department, about 20 kilometers west of Paris, where colleagues like Monet, Sisley, and Camille Pissarro also worked frequently. The winding tree trunk in the foreground on the right directs the viewer's gaze towards the center, where shaded areas in pure black provide a strong accent. The wind-blown foliage is depicted in thick, staccato-like brushstrokes of vibrant yellow and orange, standing in stark contrast to the fresh blue of the sky and the lush green of the meadow. With its vivid color palette and loose brushwork, the composition stylistically corresponds to the height of Impressionism, which Renoir and colleagues like Monet initiated around the mid-1870s.