- La belle vie: impressionism"s most joyful paintings. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is universally acclaimed and celebrated: 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 (Mallarme) and invented a new image of feminine beauty and sensuality. A prolific painter - he made several thousand works in his lifetime - he is perhaps the most beloved of the Impressionists. About the Series: Every book in TASCHEN"s Basic Art Series features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist"s life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and a concise biography.