Looking at “Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity”

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal du Moulin de la Galette, 1876, Oil on canvas, 131 x 175 cm, Paris, musée d’Orsay

Can we describe Renoir’s paintings as modern? What is the nature of the artist’s contributions to Impressionism and to the history of painting more broadly? Is his an art of love, or rather, an art of connection?

Chief Curator and Director of Conservation and Collections at the musée d’Orsay Paul Perrin will present the key considerations for Renoir and Love: A Joyful Modernity: from the conceptualization of the theme, to the design of the space and the presentation of the works. This webinar will present significant junctures in the exhibition’s development, and the way in which it invites us to contemplate well-known masterpieces of Renoir and Impressionism in a new light.

Paul Perrin is Chief Curator and Director of Collections at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. A graduate of the École du Louvre and the Institut national du patrimoine (Paris), he served as Curator of Paintings at the Musée d’Orsay from 2014 to 2023 before being appointed to his current position. A specialist in 19th-century French painting—particularly Impressionism—he is recognized for his expertise on Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, and Frédéric Bazille. He has curated several major international exhibitions at the Musée d’Orsay, including Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870): The Youth of Impressionism (2016), James Tissot (1836–1902): Ambiguously Modern (2021), Caillebotte: Painting Men (2024), and John Singer Sargent: Dazzling Paris (2025). This spring, he is curating the Paris presentation of Renoir Drawings, as well as the accompanying exhibition Renoir and Love, which will travel from Paris to the National Gallery, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.