Renoir Drawings

The Musée d'Orsay unveils a rare and precious facet of Pierre-Auguste Renoir: his graphic work. From 17 March to 5 July 2026, the exhibition ‘Renoir Drawings’ invites you to explore more than 150 drawings, sketches and preparatory studies, often overshadowed by his iconic paintings. These works, created throughout his career, reveal the spontaneity, freedom and sensitivity of an artist obsessed with movement and life.

Dialogue between two exhibitions

Echoing ‘Renoir and Love’, presented simultaneously, this exhibition offers a complementary view of the painter's world. While the former highlights his representations of tenderness and passion, ‘Renoir Drawings’ reveals what goes on behind the scenes: sketches of faces, studies of intertwined hands, and sketches of bodies in motion. A fascinating dialogue between the intimacy of the line and the grandeur of the finished paintings.

Immerse yourself in the creative process

You will discover how Renoir used drawing as a laboratory for ideas: quick studies to capture an expression, compositional research, or preparations for his future paintings. The sketchbooks, rarely exhibited, offer a unique insight into his daily life as an artist, between studios and scenes of Parisian life.

Paris and its region inspired the greatest Impressionist painters.

Experience intense emotions in the exhibitions of Paris Region.