Gabrielle Renard (August 1, 1878 – February 26, 1959) was a French woman who became an important member of the family of the painter

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

, first becoming their

nanny A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...

, and subsequently a frequent model for the artist. The bond she developed with the Renoirs' second son, the future filmmaker

Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...

, lasted throughout their lives. Upon her marriage in 1921, she became Gabrielle Renard-Slade.

Early life

Born in Essoyes in the

Aube Aube ( ) is a French departments of France, department in the Grand Est region of northeastern France. As with sixty departments in France, this department is named after a river: the Aube (river), Aube. With 310,242 inhabitants (2019),

of France, she was a cousin of Aline Victorine Charigot Renoir, who had married the painter, Pierre-Auguste. The village was the birthplace of Aline also. At age sixteen, Gabrielle Renard moved to

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

to live and work as a nanny in her cousin's household, where the second of the three Renoir sons was about to be born. Renard became the subject of a number of Renoir's portraits, many of her with the children.

The Renoir family

Gabrielle Renard developed a strong bond with the infant,

, that would last throughout their lives. She introduced him to the Guignol puppet shows that were held in the

. Gabrielle was fascinated by the newly invented

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

, and when Jean Renoir was only a few years old, she took him to see his first film. He became a renowned film maker. During the final years of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's life he suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, but continued to paint with her help. When the family moved to a farm at

Cagnes-sur-Mer Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; ) is a French Riviera town near Nice that is in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in southeaste ...

near the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast, seeking a better climate for Renoir's arthritis, Gabrielle moved with them. While he worked in the studio at "''Les Collettes''", Gabrielle would place the paint brush between his crippled fingers.

Marriage

Devoted to her cousin's family, Gabrielle Renard did not marry until 1921, when the Renoir children were grown. Her husband, (1871–1955), was an aspiring painter from a wealthy American family. They had a son whom they named Jean Slade.

The United States

Following the occupation of France by the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

during World War II, Gabrielle and her family moved to the United States, her husband's native country. Jean Renoir also moved to the United States during the war. Being a successful film director, he settled in

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a neighborhood and district in the central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. Its name has become synonymous with the U.S. film industry and the peo ...

. When Gabrielle's husband died in 1955, she moved to

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

to be near Jean Renoir.

Death

Gabrielle Renard-Slade died at her home in Beverly Hills in 1959. In his memoirs, '' My Life and My Films'', Jean Renoir begins and ends his book with discussion of Gabrielle Renard, and, throughout the autobiography, he recounts the profound influence Gabrielle had upon his life. He wrote, "She taught me to see the face behind the mask and the fraud behind the flourishes", and he concluded with the words he said he had often spoken as a child, "Wait for me, Gabrielle".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Renard, Gabrielle 1878 births 1959 deaths Nannies Pierre-Auguste Renoir People from Aube French emigrants to the United States People who emigrated to escape Nazism French artists' models People of Montmartre French domestic workers