Paris Comes to London in Renoir’s Colours
The National Gallery will host over 50 Renoir masterpieces, including works never before seen in the United Kingdom.
In the autumn of 2026, the National Gallery will present an exceptional exhibition dedicated to the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919).
Renoir and Love will open in London on 3 October 2026 and run until 31 January 2027, bringing together more than fifty works in the most significant UK showing of the French Impressionist’s art in two decades.
This will be the first Renoir exhibition at the National Gallery since 2007, and it will include some of the artist’s most celebrated and daring creations.
Among the highlights is the masterpiece Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which will be displayed in the United Kingdom for the very first time.
Organised in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition focuses on the pivotal years of Renoir’s career from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s.
It will chart the artist’s exploration of themes of love and intimacy in all their forms; from playful flirtations and tender family moments to convivial gatherings in cafés, theatres and leafy gardens.
Prestigious loans from museums and private collections around the world will enrich the display, with works arriving from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Norton Simon Art Foundation in Pasadena and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Christopher Riopelle, the Neil Westreich Curator of Post-1800 Paintings at the National Gallery and co-curator of the exhibition, notes that Renoir was unmatched in depicting love and friendship as hallmarks of modern life, capturing emotions as fleeting and luminous as sunlight, whether on Parisian streets or in sunlit woodlands.
The exhibition will juxtapose intimate, personal works with grand, multi-figure compositions that capture the spirit of urban and suburban social life.
Full-length figure paintings such as The Umbrellas (1881, reworked 1885, National Gallery) reveal Renoir’s ability to elevate everyday scenes into works of lasting significance. His celebrated dance paintings remain enduring icons of the French fin-de-siècle.
By the early 1880s, Renoir began to move away from pure Impressionism, shifting towards more structured, sculptural forms, yet his fascination with friendship, joy and the natural world endured.
Conceived by the Musée d’Orsay, this major collaboration between Paris, London and Boston will be shown first at the Musée d’Orsay (17 March – 19 July 2026), then at the National Gallery, London (3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027), before travelling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (20 February – 13 June 2027).
