Renoir Cep

An early 20th-century master, Pierre-Auguste Renoir created thousands of figurative prints and paintings and is credited as one of the founders of the Impressionist movement. His frequently reproduced works are appreciated for their luminous appearance, rich colors and soft, feathered brushstrokes.

Renoir was born in Limoges, France, in 1841. He began painting as a child while working in a porcelain factory, which led to a formal study of art in Paris under Charles Gleyre. In the early 1860s, he often visited the Louvre to study French master painters, and he became friends with Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, both leading Impressionists.

Renoir first exhibited his paintings in 1864, but he did not rise to prominence until his first exhibition with the Impressionists in 1874. In 1877, Renoir stopped exhibiting with the Impressionists and embarked on a series of travels. In 1881, he went to Algeria and Spain, meeting the artists Eugène Delacroix and Diego Velázquez. He continued to Rome, Sicily, Algeria and Guernsey, where he created 15 paintings in one month in the summer of 1883.

In 1890, Renoir married Aline Victorine Charigot, a portrait model and muse for many of his works. They had three sons, and in 1907, Renoir moved his family to the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer, near the Mediterranean. By this time, he had developed arthritis in his hands, and he had a stroke in 1912, after which he used a wheelchair. Renoir continued to paint for the rest of his life, even strapping a brush to his paralyzed fingers.

Shortly before his death in 1919, Renoir visited the Louvre to see his paintings now hanging next to the artistic icons that he used to study and admire. He returned to his home village and died in December of that year.

On 1stDibs, find Pierre-Auguste Renoir paintings, prints and sculptures.

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.