Renoir

“Reality is always magical.” —Jean Renoir, 1957

Art is a family matter for the Renoirs. The path is carved by Pierre-Auguste, the painter who along with Monet, Cézanne, Degas was at the origin of the impressionist movement and continues with Jean, the poetic avant-garde filmmaker. Indisputably one of the masters of French painting of the 19th century, Pierre-Auguste father one of the greatest cineastes of the twentieth century in Jean Renoir. From the father’s paintings to the son’s films, the artist affiliation reveals a similar pursuit, and a single source of inspiration: an ode to freedom finding its origins in a profound humanity and love of reality.

Pierre-Auguste and Jean Renoir, father and son, each marked the history of art—through painting for Pierre-Auguste and film for Jean, with the common thread of a desire to transcribe reality. This graphic novel tells the story of the intertwined lives of these two creators who always sought to draw their inspiration from the “spectacle of life”. But behind their art, there is also the story of the filiation between an old man who is slowly losing his strength and a young man seeking to make his own mark. 

In fact, it is not until after his father’s death that Jean began his career as a filmmaker and contributed some of the greatest films to the history of the movies: The Grand Illusion, The River, and The Rules of the Game. In 1975 he received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement for his body of his work.