Word: painterly
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Renoir, My Father, by Jean Renoir. The quirky character of the great impressionist painter, fondly reported by his gifted son, makes this one of the best biographies of the year...
Married. Lotte Lenya, 64, widow and singing disciple of Composer Kurt (The Threepenny Opera] Weill; and Russell Detwiler, 37, a plump U.S. impressionist painter; she for the third time; in London's Caxton Hall Registry Office. Said tawny-haired Lotte: "When you are really in love, age just becomes something written in your passport...
...biography in years has been as warm and likable as this recollection of the great impressionist painter Renoir by his son Jean. The younger Renoir posed for his father constantly as a child; now, turned portraitist, he has done a remarkable job of sketching a gentle genius. Pierre-Auguste Renoir is lucky in his biographer; his son, a playwright and film director (The River) shows none of the radiation damage that sons of geniuses sometimes display...
...beggar to accept a gift. He was, of course, frequently taken advantage of; after his paintings began to sell, chiselers took up the habit of bringing obvious Renoir forgeries to his door, knowing that he would obligingly "correct"-that is. repaint-the canvases and give them back. The painter saw through the racket, or always claimed later that he did, but it was easier for him to paint a Renoir than become indignant at a swindler. The only irritants that instantly roused him to anger were those of modernity: traffic noise, foul air, the displacement of craftsmanship by machine production...
...painter was an anthology of quirks -he always wore a hat because he was convinced that the sun's ultraviolet light beating into the skull would destroy the ability to distinguish between nuances of grey; he ordered that the friendly spiders which abounded in his studio should not be disturbed (the maids hid behind the coal pile the mop used for brushing down spiderwebs). He was a patient and humorous father; explaining the meaning of duty to his son, he would recall his own boyhood as a tailor's son. "I had to shell green peas...