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As It Happens

Renoir's great-great-granddaughter dismisses #RenoirSucksAtPainting campaign

The Renoir rebuttal. After hearing from the founder of Renoir Sucks at Painting, we hear from Renoir's great-great-granddaughter, who defends the impressionist's art and dismisses the criticisms as "insane."
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Protesters gather outside the Museum Fine Arts in Boston, Monday Oct. 5, 2015. The group staged a mock demonstration against the French impressionist painter, asking the MFA to take down its Renoirs and replace them with works by other artists. Renoir's great-great-granddaughter dismisses the criticisms as "insane." (Left: Genevieve Renoir, Right: Lane Turner/The Boston Globe/AP)

The great-great-granddaughter of impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is responding to the 'Renoir Sucks at Painting Movement.' That's the group that protested outside Boston's Museum of Fine Arts last week demanding that Renoir's paintings be taken off the museum's walls.

A woman looks up to the painting L'Apres-midi des infants a Wargemont by Auguste Renoir during the press preview of the exhibition 'Impressionism - Expressionism. Turning Point in Art' at the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Alberta-born Genevieve Renoir tells As it Happens host Carol Off that she took to Instagram to defend her relative's art.

"My original response was when your great-great-grandfather paints anything worth $78-million then you can talk," she says.

When As it Happens spoke with campaign spokesperson Max Geller last week, he said that Renoir's paintings were too sweet.

But, Renoir doesn't buy that.

"I think that Max Geller might actually be the biggest Renoir fan of all and he just has a very funny way of showing it," she says. "He really seems to be moved by the [paintings] and I think that's really the point of art."

Other protesters have said that the women in Renoir's paintings look like they have rosacea.

Renoir's tongue-and-cheek response: "I think that rosacea is a very serious condition. I think that Max should be careful not to be so offensive with some of his comments. It's not very nice."

Currently, Renoir doesn't own any of her great-great-grandfather's paintings. But, she hopes to in the future.

"I think my uncle had a great solution ... for those who are in agreement with Max. We should just take all the Renoirs out of the museums and put them in our houses. And, we will be forced to live with them and punished for the rest of eternity."

Renoir says it's a sad story how her ancestors came to live in Canada. Her father's little brother was very sick. They ended up moving to Alberta for cancer treatment at the University of Alberta Hospital because it was one of the leading treatment centres in the world. 
Here are some posts from the protest group's Instagram account:

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