Gabrielle Renard

Who was Gabrielle Renard?

Gabrielle Renard was a French woman who became an important member of the family of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, first becoming a nanny and subsequently, a frequent model for the artist. Upon her marriage in 1921 she became Gabrielle Renard-Slade.

Born in Essoyes in the Aube departement 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 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.

Gabrielle Renard developed a strong bond with the infant, Jean Renoir, that would last throughout their lives. She introduced him to the Guignol puppet shows that were held in the Montmartre. Gabrielle was fascinated by the new motion picture invention and when Jean Renoir was only a few years old, Gabrielle 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 near the Mediterranean 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.