From Oct. 3, 2026 to Jan. 31, 2027, the National Gallery in London will host a major exhibition devoted to Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which aims to be the largest in the United Kingdom devoted to the French Impressionist in the past two decades.
Renoir and Love, this is the title of the exhibition curated by Christopher Riopelle and Chiara Di Stefano and organized in collaboration with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, will focus on the crucial years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, through more than fifty paintings.
This is the first exhibition that the National Gallery has devoted to Renoir since 2007 and will feature some of the artist’s most celebrated works, including the famous Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876), which belongs to the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and is being exhibited for the first time in the United Kingdom.
The exhibition aims to explore how Renoir portrayed love and human relationships in all their nuances: from affection to seduction, from the conviviality of cafés and theaters to courtship and the more intimate dimension of child-rearing. A journey through the joy of life and the delicacy of feelings, told with the unique sensitivity of one of the masters of Impressionism.
The works on display will come on loan from private collections and museums around the world, including the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Norton Simon Art Foundation in Pasadena, California, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Christopher Riopelle, co-curator of the exhibition, said, “Renoir, more than any of his contemporaries, devoted himself to depicting love and friendship and their informal manifestations as keys to modern life. Whether it was Parisian street corners or sun-kissed woods, he understood that emotion could be fleeting, evanescent, blinding, like his other great and transitory subject: sunlight itself.” These themes are explored in delicate and personal works, but also in fascinating multi-figurative compositions depicting urban and suburban sociality. In the early 1980s, Renoir moved away from the Impressionist style to focus on more solid, sculptural compositions, but the theme of friendship and joy in nature remains intact.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and is organized by the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In fact, it will not only be held at the National Gallery in London, but also at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (March 17 to July 19, 2026, curated by Paul Perrin in collaboration with Lucie Lachenal-Tabellet) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (February 20 to June 13, 2027, curated by Katie Hanson, William and Ann Elfers in collaboration with Julia Welch).
Pictured: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876; Gustave Caillebotte bequest, 1896) © Musée d’Orsay, RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
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| The National Gallery in London dedicates a major exhibition to Renoir after 20 years. It will also be in Paris and Boston |
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