14 July – 10 September 2023: Giverny, France | 30 September – 15 December: Guernsey
Art for Guernsey is delighted to announce that an exciting new exhibition – Renoir in Guernsey, 1883 – will open at the end of September this year. The only Renoir exhibition in the world in 2023, it will celebrate the 140th anniversary of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s stay in Guernsey and the inspiration that he found on the island, and will be staged in partnership with the Guernsey Museums and the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, including a host of major international loans.
The centrepiece of the event will be a fine art exhibition at Candie Museum, with other exhibitions and activities planned at the Priaulx Library, the Renoir Walk and Art for Guernsey’s gallery in the Old Quarter, which is due to open this spring.
Renoir in Guernsey, 1883, Guernsey Museum at Candie
In September 1883, Renoir stayed in Guernsey for just over a month. During this period, he executed some 15 paintings, many of Moulin Huet bay. Fundamental in his production of landscapes, the series of views of Guernsey also attests to his constant research on the human figure and its integration into the naturalenvironment. Fascinated by the crystal-clear waters and the steep topography of the island, but also by the mores of the inhabitants who bathed freely in the rocks, Renoir developed a new style with the bathers’ freedom as a source of amusement and inspiration. This international exhibition will be shown at the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny before moving to Guernsey Museum at Candie, and will bring together a significant set of works by Renoir related to his stay. Amongst these international loans sits Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey), which Art for Guernsey syndicated a group of local art collectors to acquire, and which was last seen by islanders at ‘Through the Eyes of a Master’, the charity’s 2020 exhibition.
David Ummels, Founder of Art for Guernsey, said:
“The Renoir journey began when Art for Guernsey curated the Renoir Walk in 2019. When we invited Cyrille Sciama, Director of the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny and a world-renowned authority on Impressionism, to come to the island to inaugurate the walk, we were looking forward to being enlightened about the artist and his work. What we did not anticipate, however, was that Cyrille would make us aware of the profound influence that Renoir’s visit to Guernsey had on his career. The inspiration Renoir found on the island, and at Moulin Huet in particular, is not well documented. Renoir was coming close to the end of his Impressionist period and was looking for new ideas to move away from portraiture. He was captivated by the nude bathers he saw at Moulin Huet, especially at a time when people were bathing fully dressed in France. That brought him back to antiquity, the old masters and Watteau, and it is highly likely that his experience in Guernsey helped him to make the shift towards painting nudes in landscapes.”
Art for Guernsey is delighted that Investec is to be the main sponsor of Renoir in Guernsey, 1883, expressing their desire to support the charity from the outset, and maintaining an active interest in the production and planning as the project develops. Brendan Stewart, CEO Investec, said:
“We are excited to be able to support this incredible initiative for Guernsey. To be hosting a world-class exhibition of works by a renowned artist such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir is a major coup for the island. Our congratulations go to Art for Guernsey for their endeavour and entrepreneurial spirit, which is something Investec endorses as part of our own culture. To have most of the works back on Guernsey soil in 2023 is tremendously exciting and Investec is honoured to be the lead sponsor of the exhibition.”
Read more in the press release below:
