Lecture Access

This lecture will be available to view until 5 October 2026

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OVERVIEW

Watch on Demand | Online Lecture


Renoir was widely considered a committed painter of women, seeking to create a unique female type that combined modern Parisian charm with classical, sometimes monumental, form. 

His canvases capture sunlit afternoons, intimate domestic moments, and the textures of modern life with a warmth and luminosity that made him one of the most beloved painters of his age. 

Yet Renoir was a man of profound contradictions. His admiration for women sat alongside deeply conservative views on their role in society, and his paintings –for all their beauty – often depicted female subjects in states of passivity and idealisation that reflect the troubling assumptions of his time. The current exhibition Renoir et l'amour at the Musée d'Orsay invites us to examine these tensions more closely. 

In this lecture, Patrick Bade examines Renoir's complex relationship with women, his pivotal role in the birth of Impressionism, and the artistic journey that produced some of the nineteenth century's most enduring masterpieces – and some of its most revealing contradictions.

Lecturer

Biography

Patrick Bade holds a BA in History and History of Art from University College London and an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute. For many years until 2016 he was senior lecturer at Christies Education (in conjunction with Glasgow University). He has worked for the Art Fund, Royal Opera House, National Gallery and V&A Museum, and has taught courses on Fine and Decorative Arts Renaissance to 20th century as well as course on the history of opera. He has led many tours to Paris, Munich and Vienna and to other German cities, Brussels, Barcelona and Madrid and opera tours to Milan and Parma.

Patrick Bade

Art Historian