Great-Granddaughter Eyes Exhibit : A Renoir Artist Who Acts the Part

Sophie, reed thin with dramatically jet-black hair, walked over to one of her favorite paintings, Pierre Auguste Renoir’s “The Luncheon of the Boating Party.”

In a corner of the painting, a young woman in a gay hat has set her little dog right on the white tablecloth and is cooing to it, apparently disturbing none of the convivial diners.

“Strange place for a dog, but why not? It’s her problem,” Sophie said. “That’s my great-grandmother.”

For Sophie Renoir, 21-year-old French actress and great-granddaughter of the Impressionist painter, a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art takes on personal meaning.

The exhibit is “The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886,” and features 150 paintings and drawings, not only by the famous impressionists such as Renoir, Monet and Gauguin, but also the lesser-known ones who also were part of the group that began a whole new style of painting on their own, eschewing the official sanction of the French Salon.

These artists rebelled by choosing everyday scenes and painting impressions of natural light in loose brush strokes and bright colors, a bold contrast to the objective renderings and somber tones of the day. Unable to gain access to the government-sponsored Salon exhibitions, the impressionists began putting on their own private shows--a shocking, daring idea--in 1874. The exhibit at the Gallery, which opened Friday and travels to San Francisco in April, re-creates the eight Impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886, with samples from each exhibition in eight separate rooms.

Organized by Charles S. Moffett, a curator in charge of European paintings at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco, the show already has sold out the first two weekends on a new computer-based pass system, assembled by exhibit sponsor AT&T.;

Sophie Renoir, who spent part of her childhood in Auguste Renoir’s home in Essoyes, France, suspects that her rebellious great-grandfather would have liked the idea of having his paintings hung in the United States’ national gallery.

“I think if he was alive he would be very proud to be in the gallery in Washington,” said Renoir, one of several Impressionist heirs to attend opening ceremonies. “I think he would be happy that somebody from his family was here.”

Jean-Marie Toulgouat, a step-great-grandson of Monet and the Monet family archivist, believes Monet also would be pleased by the high level of recognition.

“In his letters to collectors and dealers, he was always complaining about the price not being high enough for his paintings,” said Toulgouat, 58, who has followed the family tradition into painting.

Toulgouat grew up playing in Monet’s country home at Giverny and was about 12 when he realized that those hundreds of paintings he saw all the time were something special.

“When I was a young fellow, I didn’t realize what they were at all,” said Toulgouat, whose grandmother was Monet’s second wife’s child by a different marriage.

Began Studying Painting

Toulgouat began studying painting very young, with his grandfather, American impressionist Theodore Butler, and with Blanche Hoschede, the step-granddaughter of Monet and the only person to paint with Monet in his gardens.

The family stories of Monet abounded. Toulgouat, who was born two years after Monet’s death, also did extensive research on the artist, describing him as “very difficult . . . strong, tough, combative.”

But Monet also had a sensitive, insecure side, Toulgouat said.

“He never, never was sure of what he was doing, if it was good or not. I like very much that,” said Toulgouat in his French-influenced English.

“Sometimes he destroyed very important work because he was not satisfied. He used to take these pallet knives and. . . .” He completed the sentence by gesturing a violent slashing motion.

Growing up in Giverny in Monet’s extended family “it would have been very difficult not to be a painter,” said Toulgouat, whose most recent exhibition was in Atlanta, Ga. “It is certainly the reason why I’m painting.

“I was lucky to be born in a family in which so many people do painting. But in another way it is very hard, very difficult. You have to be careful not to be a copy of your ancestor. You need to be yourself.”

Toulgouat said his style is more abstract than Monet’s.

In contrast to Toulgouat, Sophie Renoir did not feel any pressure to paint.

‘I Give It Up’

“I tried painting, but I’m so bad, I give it up forever,” said Renoir, who is learning English.

Her passion, instead, is acting. In an attempt to exorcise her of this, her parents sent her to Los Angeles for two summers when she was a teen-ager to study acting with Tracy Roberts, a difficult regimen they thought would change her mind about acting.

“But it was exactly the opposite,” Renoir said. “I just love it.”

She said Renoir’s home “is not really a pretty house, but inside you feel something. Positive waves. You feel the house had a story.”

Sophie Renoir said that she knows from family stories that Renoir, who died in 1919, doted on his children, to the point that he didn’t like the floors waxed because “it might be dangerous for the children,” she said. “He also cut the corners off the tables so they wouldn’t run into them and hurt themselves. I know he loved traveling, and to see plays.”

Although she does not share a painting bond with Renoir, she said the name gives her good recognition and something to live up to.

“I hate it when people say, ‘I’m the son of so-and-so and I don’t care.’ You always care,” she said. “I like it when people tell you, ‘I love your grandfather’s paintings.’ ”

Renoir said that since quitting school at 16 (no one in the Renoir family has a college degree, she added) she has been in three movies and 13 television shows in France, recently completing a Canadian movie called “He Shoots, He Scores,” in which she plays the girlfriend of a hockey player.

She would like to be in American and Italian movies but would never do a nude scene, she said, admitting that her refusal to consider it could hurt her career.

“If I ever get childrens (sic), I don’t want them to see me like that,” she said. “I’m very strict on that.”

Being a Renoir will not make her a successful actress, she said. “But it helps to be known. It’s a name that’s easy to remember.”