The National Gallery has announced that it will stage a major exhibition of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) in Autumn 2026.
‘Renoir and Love’ will be the most significant exhibition of the French impressionist’s work in the UK for 20 years, and it will feature over 50 works.
The first exhibition devoted to the artist at the National Gallery since 2007 ‘Renoir and Love’ will include his most experimental, ambitious and admired canvases including the iconic Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which will be exhibited in the UK for the first time.
Organised in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay, Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ‘Renoir and Love’ will focus on the crucial years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s.
The exhibition traces the evolution of the imagery of affection, seduction, conversation, male camaraderie and the sociability of the café and theatre, as well as merry-making, flirtation, courtship and child-rearing in Renoir’s art.
Loans from private collections and museums worldwide include pictures from Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen; the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasadena, California, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Exhibition co-curator Christopher Riopelle, the Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, says: “More than any of his contemporaries, Renoir was committed to chronicling love and friendship and their informal manifestations as keys to modern life. Whether on Parisian streetcorners or in sun-dappled woodlands, he understood that emotion could be as fleeting, as evanescent, as blinding, as his other great and transitory subject, sunlight itself.”
The exhibition was initiated by the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and is organised by the Musée d’Orsay, the National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It will be shown at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (17 March – 19 July 2026); the National Gallery, London (3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027); and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (20 February – 13 June 2027).
For further information: nationalgallery.org.uk
Image: The National Gallery by Stefanos Nt on Unsplash
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