Auguste Renoir was in his fifties and his wife Aline much younger when their son Jean was born.
Jean wrote, "I was a spoilt child. My family enclosed me in a protective wall softly padded on the inside. Beyond this wall, impressive persons came and went. I would have liked to join them and be impressive myself...when I discerned a breach in the wall, I uttered cries of alarm. My father loved to paint my hair...I did not look at my father's pictures, but I was aware of them." Later Jean was sent to boarding school which he hated, and from which he regularly ran away.
The picture is Jean drawing, created by the famous father and the quote is from My Life and My Films by Jean Renoir. Many years later, the little golden-haired Jean would become one of the great French filmmakers.
I never made the connection that Jean Renoir was the son of the painter. His Beauty and the Beast is quite something. Didn't he do The River too? Set in India.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to this novel. I hope to go to Giverny one of these days. I studied in VIchy and Clermont-Ferrand a life time ago.
Yes, he did film The River. You may not get this, so I will also write you on Twitter! Thanks for visiting the website!
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