It¡¯s been a few years since the last big Pierre-Auguste Renoir exhibition in town. The last one, if I remember correctly, was ¡°Renoir: Tradition & Innovation¡± at the National Art Center Tokyo (NACT). That brought over the French impressionist¡¯s ¡°Dance at Bougival¡± (1883), an excellent painting, but padded out the rest of the show largely with inferior works, leaving a generally negative impression ¡ª no pun intended.
This time the show is again at NACT, but there seems to have been a noticeable uptick in quality. Instead of just one or two famous works to emblazon on posters and leaflets in order to draw the crowds, there seems to be a surfeit. Among these are ¡°Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette¡± (1876), touted by the museum as one of the ¡°crown jewels of impressionism¡°; the tender and heart-warming ¡°Girls at the Piano¡± (1892); and ¡°The Bathers¡± (1918-19), one of the best examples of Renoir¡¯s ¡°fuller figure¡± nudes from his later period. In addition to this, the lesser works seem to be of a generally higher quality.
From all this, there is a real sense of the organizers upping their game and attempting to give this famous and much-loved painter his due.
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