Trademark Art 'Still Life of Fruit and Flowers' by Pierre Renoir

About Museum Quality Reproductions

Giclées are Museum quality Fine-Art reproductions, also called Archival Prints. These are the result of highly advanced digital printing technology.

A Fine-art Giclée is the closest to an original painting you can get. These artworks are made with an ultra-high-resolution fine-art printer, using seven cartridges of the very finest archival inks on acid free paper. Independent testing by Wilhelm Imaging Research Inc. (a world-leader in image-longevity testing) has established that these "Archival-Prints" or Giclées will last more than 200 years before any noticeable shift in color integrity occurs. Unlike regular printed reproductions, Giclées are truly durable "Museum quality" Fine-Art reproductions.

The color and artistic value, quality of materials, and overall looks make a Fine-art Giclée much more valuable and much more expensive to produce than any other type of reproduction. Its Market value increases even more, if it is of a limited edition of 100 pieces or less, and if it has been pencil signed and numbered by the Artist. Giclées are usually accompanied by an Authenticity Certificate" indicating title of the original, and size of the limited edition.

A Fine-art Giclée is created by tiny jets spraying millions of droplets of archival, pigmented inks onto a sheet of fine art, acid free paper or onto cotton canvas. This spray of ink, more that 4 million droplets per second, whirls onto paper spinning on a drum at 250 inches per second. Hence the name giclée is French for "fine spray."

Precise computer calculations control seven ink jets that together produce 512 shades of dense, special quality ink. The information controlling the jets comes directly from a computer - no printing film or plates are involved. The computer's information is scanned directly from the artist's original work or a digital image of it. An art print emerges, of a superior quality than a serigraph or lithograph. A true Museum-quality Fine-Art reproduction.

About Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau."

Pierre-Auguste was the father of actor Pierre Renoir and filmmaker Jean Renoir.

Around 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the warmer climate of "Les Collettes," a farm at Cagnes-sur-Mer, close to the Mediterranean coast. Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his life, even when arthritis severely limited his movement, and he was wheelchair-bound. He developed progressive deformities in his hands and ankylosis of his right shoulder, requiring him to adapt his painting technique. It has often been reported that in the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a brush strapped to his paralyzed fingers, but this is erroneous; Renoir remained able to grasp a brush, although he required an assistant to place it in his hand. The wrapping of his hands with bandages, apparent in late photographs of the artist, served to prevent skin irritation.

During this period, he created sculptures by cooperating with a young artist, Richard Guino, who worked the clay. Renoir also used a moving canvas, or picture roll, to facilitate painting large works with his limited joint mobility.

Renoir's portrait of Austrian actress Tilla Durieux (1914) contains playful flecks of vibrant color on her shawl that offset the classical pose of the actress and highlight Renoir's skill just 5 years before his death.