No, Renoir isn’t kitsch nonsense. See the National Gallery’s five-star smash

Alastair Sooke | AOL | 30th September 2026

Renoir has acquired a few haters, based on syrupy late career works and his porn-y nudes. This reviewer pushes back. His earlier work – his “glory years” – richly described working-class Montmartre and pushed the boundaries of depicting transient light. Impressively, some of his most joyous renditions of life’s fleeting pleasures were completed after being drafted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war. Says one critic, Renoir was “an artistic innovator and painter of the first rank”.