Renoir - the pain passes and the beauty stays
- Ryszard Skarbek
- Aug 29, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 19
How great can the power of human determination be? Is it possible to overcome severe physical pain and still enjoy life or admire beauty? What is transient and what remains immortal? These are the questions that will run through another inspiring story published on the Empowerment Coaching Kraków blog in the series of coaching stories.
Today we will tell you about the famous painter Renoir and take a sneak peek at when and despite what difficulties he painted one of his greatest works.
Renoir - A Tale of Pain and Beauty
Even though Henri Matisse was nearly twenty-eight years younger than Auguste Renoir, both great artists were close friends and often spent time together. When Renoir hardly left his home in the last years of his life, Matisse visited him daily.
Renoir, almost paralyzed by arthritis, continued to paint despite his illness. Once upon a time, Matisse watched an older colleague paint in his studio, struggling with the excruciating pain that made every brush stroke difficult. Finally, he could not stand it and, moved, exclaimed:
- Auguste, why are you still painting when you are in such terrible pain?
Renoir replied simply: Pain passes but the beauty remains.
And so, almost until the day of his death, Renoir put paint on his canvas. One of his most famous paintings "The Bathing" was painted two years before his death, fourteen years after he was attacked by a painful disease.
What else can the story of Renoir's illness inspire us to do?
If you do something you love, if you do it with real passion - there is no force that could stop you. Valuable art is also the ability to notice the beauty in the world around us and be grateful for it.
And as Denzel Washington beautifully said:
Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss, dream? Because the most beautiful things in life cannot be seen with the eyes, but with the heart.
And Leonardo da Vinci, a specialist in beauty and harmony, put it this way in his golden thought:
Look at the light and watch its beauty. Close your eyes for a moment and look again. What you see now was not there before, and what was before is no more.
See also other coaching parables and stories:
Personal Development: a parable of sculptor
Wise support coaching. A parable of a man in the swamp
About the role of a leader. The parable of the star
Words are of great importance. A parable of hammering the nails
Pyrrhic Victory: Will fulfilling your aspirations surely bring you happiness?
The story of three bricklayers. Building cathedral story
Shake it off! About a donkey that could not be buried alive
Free life coaching exercises, templates, workbooks pdf
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