La belle vie: Impressionism's most joyful paintings Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is now universally acclaimed: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. Renoir never wanted anything ugly in his paintings, nor any dramatic action. "I like pictures which make me want to wander through them when it’s a landscape," he said, "or pass my hand over breast or back if it’s a woman."

Renoir’s entire oeuvre is dominated by the depiction of women. Again and again he painted "these faunesses with their pouting lips" (Mallarmé) and invented a new image of feminity. About the Series:

Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance

* a concise biography

* approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions