Pierre Auguste Renoir was one of the founding French artists of the Impressionist movement, but unlike many of his contemporaries, began to question the aims of the movement toward the end of his career leading toward to fusion of a style which mixed elements of Impressionism with the traditional in-studio types of painting practiced in the past, particularly by the old masters of whom Renoir was especially influenced by. Renoir was born to a working class family in Limoges, France in February of 1841. The first instances of artistic training that Renoir encountered was first in his position working as a china painter in a porcelain studio, and later training in the studio of Gleyre. His work was a china painter was one definite characteristic which would come to affect the later paintings of Pierre Auguste Renoir. The artist who was most closely associated with oil paintings of Pierre Auguste Renoir’s Impressionist style is Claude Monet. The two artists worked together at La Grenouillère, a popular bathing spot located on the Seine River. There they created many studies of color and shadow and came to the conclusion that shadows are reflective of the colors in their surroundings, not simply a black, brown, or grey darker area. The rich color and free hand of the Impressionist brush strokes were very similar in the two artists during this period in their careers due to their close work together. Like many of Monet’s works, Renoir’s works often contain subjects which display young women and Renoir seemed to be fascinated with the color, light, and happy emotions of the subjects that he painted. The formal characteristics of Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings evolved over the course of his career, but some of the lasting elements of his work are: a free brush stroke to handle and convey expression, the use of the rainbow palette in many, but not all works (meaning that Pierre Auguste Renoir artwork was created without the use of black in the painter’s palette), subjects including light-hearted and upper-class diversions, and a richness and handling of light that is superior. These qualities have all set Pierre Auguste Renoir oil paintings in a position of high esteem, particularly among collectors who have paid over seventy million for some of his most famous works. The later works of Renoir begin to show an increased emphasis on the work of the Old Masters because Renoir himself began to become very critical of the Impressionist movement and felt that his artwork was going too far in the Impressionist direction to be of great value to the history of art, which was one of his deepest longings for his career. Despite suffering extreme problems with arthritis as he aged, Renoir’s later paintings exhibit a maturity that was simply not evident in his earlier works. Some of the most well-respected Renoir paintings exhibiting this style as well as the early penchant for Impressionism are: Bal a Moulin de la Galette, Montmarte, Luncheon of the Boating, Party, Nude, The Swing, La Promenade, Girl with a Watering Can, Restaurant Fournaise, Umbrellas, In the Meadow, Young Girl with Daisies and Girl with a Hoop.