French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was one of the leading painters of the Impressionist movement. He created several thousand paintings in his lifetime and is acclaimed for his portraiture and dreamy landscapes. His works are some of the most well-known and frequently reproduced in the history of art.Impressionists were the radicals of the art world, defying the formal rules of academic painting by preferring to spontaneously paint outdoors rather than within the walls of a studio. This “on the spot” style resulted in a greater awareness of colour and light and translated on canvas as rapid and broken brushstrokes that captured the fleeting quality of sunlight.The Impressionist group, which also included founding member Berthe Morisot, often exhibited together as well as individually. In 1892 Renoir wrote to Morisot ahead of her first solo exhibition in Paris, and that letter is reproduced here against the lush backdrop of his Bed of Anemones painting.