While Renoir is celebrated as a painter and colorist, his works on paper - sketches, watercolors, pastels and preparatory studies - had never received comparable attention. The exhibition Renoir Dessinateur fills this gap, bringing together around one hundred works from international collections, many of them never shown before. From March 17 to July 5, 2026 the Musée d’Orsay will devote, for the first time, a major retrospective to Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s drawings, revealing a lesser-known side of the Impressionist master and highlighting the fundamental role of line in his artistic development. The exhibition begins with his formative years, between 1850 and 1860, when Renoir honed his skills through academic studies, and closes with his later creative seasons, marked by a wide range of techniques: pencils, charcoal, pen and ink, red chalk, watercolors and gouache. From the 1880s onwards, red chalk became his favored medium, capable of conveying warmth, flesh and movement with striking immediacy. Curated by Paul Perrin, Colin Bailey and Anne Distel with the collaboration of Sarah Lees and Cloé Viala, the exhibition allows visitors to compare works on paper with finished paintings, including Les Baigneuses. Essai de peinture décorative and Maternité, offering direct insight into the artist’s creative process.
