# Alain Renoir

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alain_Renoir
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alain_Renoir.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Renoir
> Source revision: 1322129779
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

French-American writer

This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Alain Renoir" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

**Alain Renoir** (October 31, 1921 – December 12, 2008) was a French-American literary critic and professor of Medieval literature, son of the filmmaker [Jean Renoir](/source/Jean_Renoir) and actress [Catherine Hessling](/source/Catherine_Hessling), and grandson of the impressionist painter [Pierre-Auguste Renoir](/source/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir).

Renoir was born in [Cagnes-sur-Mer](/source/Cagnes-sur-Mer), the only child of Jean Renoir. As a teenager, he worked in a few of his father's films, including *House Party* (1936), and as an assistant cameraman on *[The Human Beast](/source/La_B%C3%AAte_Humaine_(film))* (1938) and *[The Rules of the Game](/source/The_Rules_of_the_Game)* (1939). In 1942, after serving time in the French Army, he joined his father in Los Angeles. His father encouraged him to fight for his new country, and so he enlisted in the American Army and served in combat in the Pacific.

After the war, he studied English and comparative literature at the [University of California Santa Barbara](/source/University_of_California_Santa_Barbara), eventually earning his doctorate from [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University),[1] where he studied under [Francis Peabody Magoun](/source/Francis_Peabody_Magoun). It was at Harvard that he was introduced to the work of [Milman Parry](/source/Milman_Parry) and [Albert Lord](/source/Albert_Lord) on the oral-formulaic theory of epic poetry, and he went on to become a passionate proponent of this theory throughout most of his critical works, culminating in his final publication (and sole book), *A Key to Old Poems: The Oral-Formulaic Approach to the Interpretation of West-Germanic Verse* (Penn State University Press, 1990)[2]

In 1956, Renoir became a professor of the Department of English at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), the institution where he was to remain for the rest of his career. In 1966, he founded the Department of Comparative Literature[3] but returned to the Department of English some dozen years later. He was considered a leading scholar of medieval, and particularly, Old English, literature, and published many articles on *[Beowulf](/source/Beowulf)* and other Old and Middle English poetry. In 1992, the oral-formulaic scholar [John Miles Foley](/source/John_Miles_Foley) honored Renoir with the *festschrift*, *De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir*.[4]

After retiring from UC Berkeley in 1988, Renoir spent his last years running a small sustainable farm in north central California, doing much of the work himself.

With his wife, Jane, he had three children, John, Peter, and Anne.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Unique film of Impressionist Renoir at work is found at Department of Comparative Literature"](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/07/unique-film-of-impressionist-renoir-at-work-is-found-at-department-of-comparative-literature/). 19 July 2001.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Renoir, Alain (1990). [*A Key to Old Poems: The Oral-Formulaic Approach to the Interpretation of West-Germanic Verse*](https://www.amazon.com/Key-Poems-Oral-Formulaic-Interpretation-West-Germanic/dp/0271004827). Penn State University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0271004822](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0271004822)..

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Klingenstein, Susanne (December 1998). [*Enlarging America: The Cultural Work of Jewish Literary Scholars, 1930-1990*](https://books.google.com/books?id=6J3qNgjUxCQC&pg=PA296). Syracuse University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780815605409](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780815605409).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Foley, John M. (1992). [*De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir*](https://books.google.com/books?id=-_tfQgAACAAJ). Garland. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0815303955](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0815303955).

## External links

- [IMDb database bio](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003839/bio)

v t e Jean Renoir Bibliography Filmography Films directed The Whirlpool of Fate (1925) Nana (1926) Charleston Parade (1927) Marquitta (1927) The Little Match Girl (1928) Le Bled (1929) On purge bébé (1931) La Chienne (1931) Night at the Crossroads (1932) Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) Chotard and Company (1933) Madame Bovary (1934) Toni (1935) Life Belongs to Us (1936) The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) The Lower Depths (1936) La Grande Illusion (1937) La Marseillaise (1938) La Bête Humaine (1938) The Rules of the Game (1939) Swamp Water (1941) This Land Is Mine (1943) The Southerner (1945) The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) "Partie de campagne" (1946) The Woman on the Beach (1947) The River (1951) The Golden Coach (1952) French Cancan (1955) Elena and Her Men (1956) The Doctor's Horrible Experiment (1959) Picnic on the Grass (1959) The Elusive Corporal (1962) The Little Theatre of Jean Renoir (1970) Books written Renoir, My Father (1962) The Notebooks of Captain Georges (1966) My Life and My Films (1974) Related Louis Lumière / conversation avec Langlois et Renoir Catherine Hessling (wife) Alain Renoir (son) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (father) Aline Charigot Renoir (mother) Pierre Renoir (brother) Gabrielle Renard Marguerite Renoir

v t e Pierre-Auguste Renoir Paintings List of paintings Portrait of William Sisley (1864) Mother Anthony's Tavern (1866) Diana (1867) Lise with a Parasol (1867) Frédéric Bazille at his Easel (1867) A Couple (Les Fiancés) (1868) In Summer (1868) Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne (1868) Léonard Renoir, The Artist's Father (1869) La Grenouillère (1869) A Nymph by a Stream (1869–70) L'Algérienne (1870) La Promenade (1870) Bather with a Griffon Dog (1870) Woman with Parakeet (1871) The Harem (1872) Le Pont-Neuf (1872) The Gust of Wind (1872) Claude Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil (1873) La Parisienne (1874) La Loge (1874) The Grands Boulevards (1875) Portrait of the Painter Claude Monet (1875) In the Garden – Under the Arbour at the Moulin de la Galette (1875) Woman with a Cat (1875) Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) Nude woman sitting on a couch (Anna) (1876) The Swing (1876) A Girl with a Watering Can (1876) Mother and Children (1876) At the Theatre (1876–1877) Eugène Murer (1877) The Day Dream (1877) The Cup of Chocolate (1878) Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children (1878) Portrait of Jeanne Samary (1878) Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (1879) Paysage Bords de Seine (1879) Portrait of Irène Cahen d'Anvers (La Petite Irène) (1880) Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) Pink and Blue (1881) Two Sisters (On the Terrace) (1881) Young Women in Black (1880–1882) Blonde Bather (1881 and 1882) The Umbrellas (1880–81, 1885–86) By the Seashore (1883) Dance at Bougival (1883) Dance in the City (1883) Dance in the Country (1883) Les Grandes Baigneuses (1884–1887) Nature morte: fleurs (1885) The Braid (1886–1887) Young Woman with a Blue Ribbon (1888) Girls at the Piano (1892) Yvonne and Christine Lerolle at the Piano (1897) Woman Playing a Guitar (1897) Gabrielle with Open Blouse (1907) Nude (1910) After the Bath (1910) The Coast at Cagnes, Sea, Mountains (c. 1910) Portrait of Ambroise Vollard in a Red Headscarf (1911) The Farm at Les Collettes, Cagnes (c. 1908–1914) Blond Girl with a Rose (1915–1917) Portrait of Adèle Besson (1918) The Bathers (1918–19) Sculptures Venus Victorious (c. 1914) Portrayals Portrait of Pierre‑Auguste Renoir (1867 painting) A Studio at Les Batignolles (1870 painting) Bazille's Studio (1870 painting) The Impressionists (2006 series) Renoir (2012 film) Family Aline Charigot (wife) Lucienne Bisson (daughter) Pierre Renoir (son) Jean Renoir (son) Claude Renoir (son) Claude Renoir (grandson) Alain Renoir (grandson) Paul Renoir (grandson) Pierre Roland Renoir (great-grandson) Sophie Renoir (great-granddaughter) Jean-Emmanuel Renoir (great-grandson) Related Musée de Montmartre, home and studio Renoir, My Father Gabrielle Renard (nanny, later model) Lise Tréhot Marguerite Legrand Catherine Hessling Richard Guino Jeanne Samary Suzanne Valadon Henriette Henriot Jane Henriot (child model) Raoul Rigault Jeanne Baudot (his only student) Maison Fournaise Pays des Impressionnistes Renoir (crater)

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National United States France BnF data Spain Netherlands Israel Academics CiNii People Trove Other IdRef Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alain Renoir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Renoir) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Renoir?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.