Renoir and Cézanne: Masters in Dialogue

The Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo is hosting the exhibition on Renoir and Cézanne, the only Japanese stop of an important international project that has already travelled to Milan, Martigny (Switzerland), and Hong Kong. Featuring over fifty works from the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the exhibition sheds light on the friendship and contrasts between two key figures of modern painting. Renoir, born in Limoges in 1841, was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement, known for his luminous palette, convivial scenes, and his focus on the human figure, rendered with vibrant sensuality and grace. Cézanne, born in Aix-en-Provence and a contemporary of Renoir, soon moved away from Impressionist aesthetics in search of a more rigorous construction of the image, based on essential forms and a structural analysis of color. The exhibition brings together portraits, landscapes, and still lifes that reveal the two artists’ divergent choices: on one hand, Renoir’s luminous sensuality and soft rendering of form; on the other, Cézanne’s volumetric density and geometric tension. Works such as Jeunes filles au piano and Portrait de l’artiste’s son exemplify this complementary opposition, offering Japanese audiences a close look at the transformative processes of Western art. Organized into thematic sections, the exhibition also highlights moments of connection between the two Masters, including shared stays in the south of France, where aesthetic dialogues emerged that remain fertile to this day.