Join Sarah Lees, Research Associate at the Morgan Library & Museum and exhibition co-curator, for a special opportunity to tour Renoir Drawings before the museum opens to the public. Don’t miss this chance to discover Renoir’s prolific drawing practice in this intimate tour of this exhibition before it closes on Sunday, February 8.
Exhibition Information:
While the paintings of Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) have become icons of Impressionism, his drawings, watercolors, and pastels are far less widely known. In fact, drawing remained central to his artistic practice even as his interests and ambitions changed over the course of a long career. This exhibition explores the ways in which Renoir used paper to test ideas, plan compositions, and interpret both landscape and the human figure.
Thematic sections will cover the full span of the artist’s career, ranging from academic studies he made as a student, to on-the-spot impressions of contemporary urban and rural life, to finished, formal portraits, to intimate sketches of friends and family completed late in life. In-depth case studies of favored themes and preparatory work for landmark canvases will further illuminate Renoir’s practice of drawing.
Inspired by the major gift to the Morgan of a large-scale preparatory sketch for one of Renoir’s most significant paintings, The Great Bathers, this exhibition is the first in a century to explore the artist’s works on paper in depth. Organized by the Morgan Library Museum and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Renoir Drawings brings together nearly one hundred drawings, pastels, watercolors, prints, and a small selection of paintings, enabling visitors to engage with Renoir’s creative process while offering insights into his artistic methods over five decades.
Organized by Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director, and Sarah Lees, Research Associate.
Renoir Drawings is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum and the Musée d’Orsay.
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This DRAWINGS WEEK 2026 event is organized by The Drawing Foundation in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum and in association with Master Drawings New York 2026.
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Study for “Dance in the Country” (detail), 1883. Brush and brown, blue, and black wash over black chalk or graphite on paper. Yale University Art Gallery, Bequest of Edith Malvina K. Wetmore, 1966.80.25.
