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50 free Pierre-Auguste Renoir trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir left school at thirteen to paint porcelain, nearly got thrown into the Seine as a spy during the Commune, and finished his career on the Riviera with bandaged hands, still insisting the beauty remains. In between he painted some of the most reproduced pictures in the world. These 50 questions cover the life and the canvases: the porcelain apprenticeship, Charles Gleyre's studio where he met Monet, the first Impressionist exhibition, the Moulin de la Galette and The Swing painted in the same Montmartre garden, and the Maison Fournaise terrace at Chatou that gave us Luncheon of the Boating Party and Two Sisters. You will meet the models and patrons, from Lise Tréhot and Suzanne Valadon to Aline Charigot, Caillebotte and Durand-Ruel, and the family that followed: actor Pierre, filmmaker Jean, ceramicist Claude. Easy questions cover museums and movements; the hard tier asks about Wagner's 35-minute portrait, Guernsey, the Baltimore theft and the Commune leader who saved his life. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01Which art movement is Renoir most associated with?
Impressionism
He showed six paintings at the First Impressionist Exhibition in April 1874.
Q 02In which French city was Renoir born in 1841?
Limoges
His tailor father moved the family to Paris in 1844, a short walk from the Louvre.
Q 03Which of Renoir's sons became a celebrated film director?
Jean
He made La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game; brother Pierre was an actor, Claude a ceramicist.
Q 04At what age did Renoir leave school to apprentice at a porcelain factory?
13
His singing teacher had been the composer Charles Gounod, then choirmaster at St Roch.
Q 05Under which teacher did Renoir study in 1862, meeting Monet, Sisley and Bazille?
Charles Gleyre
Gleyre's Paris studio was the incubator of the Impressionist circle.
Q 06Which painting gave Renoir his first Salon success in 1868?
Lise with a Parasol
The model, Lise Tréhot, was his lover and also posed for Diana the year before.
Q 07Which Paris museum houses Bal du moulin de la Galette?
Musée d'Orsay
It passed to the state as death duties from Caillebotte, then hung in the Luxembourg and the Louvre.
Q 08In which Paris district is the Moulin de la Galette of Renoir's 1876 painting?
Montmartre
Working-class Parisians dressed up on Sundays to dance, drink and eat galettes there.
Q 09Who bought the smaller Bal du moulin de la Galette for $78 million in 1990?
Ryoei Saito
The Japanese paper magnate caused outrage by suggesting he would be cremated with it and his Van Gogh.
Q 10Which Washington museum holds Luncheon of the Boating Party?
The Phillips Collection
Duncan Phillips chased it for a decade and paid $125,000 in 1923.
Q 11At which restaurant on the Seine is Luncheon of the Boating Party set?
Maison Fournaise
It stood in Chatou; the proprietor's daughter Alphonsine leans on the railing in the picture.
Q 12Which future wife of Renoir plays with a small dog in Luncheon of the Boating Party?
Aline Charigot
The dressmaker from Essoyes married him in 1890; the dog is an affenpinscher.
Q 13Which painter-patron sits backwards in a chair in Luncheon of the Boating Party?
Gustave Caillebotte
An avid boatman himself, he wears a white boater's shirt and a flat straw hat.
Q 21On which Channel Island did Renoir paint fifteen pictures in summer 1883?
Guernsey
Most show Moulin Huet bay; the island issued commemorative stamps of them in 1983.
Q 22Which American collection holds the most Renoirs, 181 paintings?
Barnes Foundation
Albert Barnes built his Philadelphia-area hoard in the early 20th century.
Q 23Renoir's disciplined 1880s style is sometimes named after which earlier French painter?
Ingres
Italy and Raphael convinced him 'I could neither paint nor draw'; The Large Bathers came from this period.
Q 14Which Veronese banquet scene is thought to have shaped Luncheon of the Boating Party?
The Wedding Feast at Cana
It hung in the Louvre, where the young Renoir spent hours escaping the porcelain works.
Q 15Which Boston institution owns Dance at Bougival?
Museum of Fine Arts
It is one of three Dance pictures commissioned by Paul Durand-Ruel in early 1883.
Q 16Which model, later a major painter, probably posed for Dance at Bougival?
Suzanne Valadon
A former trapeze artist, she studied the techniques of the painters she sat for.
Q 17Which disease crippled Renoir's hands in his final decades?
Rheumatoid arthritis
He could still grasp a brush; the bandages in late photos were to prevent skin irritation.
Q 18In which Riviera village did Renoir buy the farm Les Collettes?
Cagnes-sur-Mer
He moved there in 1907 for the warm climate and died there in December 1919.
Q 19Which young sculptor worked the clay for Renoir's late sculptures?
Richard Guino
Renoir directed him while too arthritic to model himself, including the bust for Aline's grave.
Q 20How many minutes did Renoir take to paint Richard Wagner's portrait in 1882?
35
They met at Wagner's home in Palermo on 15 January 1882.
Q 24Which US city's art museum owns The Large Bathers of 1884–87?
Philadelphia
It is the summit of his severe, outline-driven 'Ingres period'.
Q 25Which painter's 1879 Salon success featured Mme Charpentier and her children?
Renoir
The society portrait made him fashionable and led to patron Paul Bérard that same year.
Q 26What did Renoir reportedly say when asked why he kept painting despite his arthritis?
The pain passes, but the beauty remains
His great-grandson Alexandre titled a 2018 exhibition 'Beauty Remains' after it.
Q 27Who was the Commune leader who saved Renoir from being thrown into the Seine in 1871?
Raoul Rigault
Communards took the painter for a spy until Rigault recognised a man who had once protected him.
Q 28With whom did Renoir paint side by side at La Grenouillère in 1869?
Claude Monet
Together they found that shadows take the reflected colour of nearby objects, not brown or black.
Q 29Which London institution owns The Umbrellas as part of the Lane Bequest?
National Gallery
It alternates with Dublin's Hugh Lane gallery and spent 2013–2019 in Ireland.
Q 30What did X-rays show the left-hand woman in The Umbrellas originally wore?
A hat and frilled dress
Renoir reworked her around 1885 into a plainer working-class modiste carrying a hatbox.