[Oita Art and Culture Tour | OITA Art&Culture] Introduction of the Oita Prefectural Art Museum, etc Renoir and Japan / Oita City,

　Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a leading French Impressionist painter of the 19th century. His bright, joy-filled works have long been cherished in Japan. Why has Renoir been so beloved by the Japanese people? One reason may be that an environment has been established in which people can actually view numerous works at art museums throughout Japan.
　Many of the Renoir works held in Japan were acquired as flagship pieces for the collections of public and private museums during the Showa and Heisei periods, as the development of these institutions progressed after World War II. As a result, although Renoir was a master from a distant foreign land, he became one of the Western painters most familiar to the Japanese people.
　This exhibition traces the influence Renoir had on modern Japanese art through works brought to Japan during the Meiji and Taisho periods, as well as works by Japanese Western-style painters who were strongly influenced by his art. Furthermore, it brings together in one place valuable Renoir works collected by museums and corporations nationwide—primarily during the Showa and Heisei periods—to illustrate the history of his reception in Japan. How did Renoir transform from a “distant French painter” into “our Renoir”? Please enjoy the story of the encounter between Renoir and the Japanese people through these works.