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La belle vie: Impressionism's most joyful paintings   Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) is universally acclaimed and celebrated: museums pride themselves on his paintings, crowds flock to his retrospectives. His work shows art at its most light-hearted, sensual and luminous. Renoir never wanted anything ugly in his paintings, nor any dramatic action. "I like pictures which make me want to wander through them when it's a landscape," he said, "or pass my hand over breast or back if it's a woman." Renoir's entire oeuvre is dominated by the depiction of women--again and again he painted "these faunesses with their pouting lips" (Mallarm#65533;) and invented a new image of feminine beauty and sensuality. A prolific painter--he made several thousand works in his lifetime--he is perhaps the most beloved of the Impressionists.   About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions