The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Renoir's paintings have many technical merits - balanced colors, compositions that add stability, brushwork that evokes a dreamy tranquility.
But to fully appreciate them, I think you have to get beyond the intellectual and set your heart loose to play like a child in the sunshine that glows within the paintings. Is that hard for you? Has the seriousness of life, or even the church taught you to mistrust pure delight like food that must be bad for you if it tastes good? I hope not, because the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to fully savor the joy He provides for us. So let go for a moment, and allow your soul to bask in the serenity of Renoir’s art.
The experience may touch something deep within you – something pure and fundamental – something left over from the way life once was, in the Garden of Eden.
And if we can sense this, leading relatively easy lives, imagine how powerfully these images of heaven on earth could charm the heart of someone who knows real hardship. Imagine, for instance, what a sweet dream these would be for a man who escaped poverty in his youth only to suffer an adulthood plagued with decades of physical pain; who struggled with the insecurity of a working class upbringing in a society of intellectuals; and who further saw his family torn apart by wartime injuries and the untimely death of his wife and son.
But to fully appreciate them, I think you have to get beyond the intellectual and set your heart loose to play like a child in the sunshine that glows within the paintings. Is that hard for you? Has the seriousness of life, or even the church taught you to mistrust pure delight like food that must be bad for you if it tastes good? I hope not, because the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to fully savor the joy He provides for us. So let go for a moment, and allow your soul to bask in the serenity of Renoir’s art.
The experience may touch something deep within you – something pure and fundamental – something left over from the way life once was, in the Garden of Eden.
And if we can sense this, leading relatively easy lives, imagine how powerfully these images of heaven on earth could charm the heart of someone who knows real hardship. Imagine, for instance, what a sweet dream these would be for a man who escaped poverty in his youth only to suffer an adulthood plagued with decades of physical pain; who struggled with the insecurity of a working class upbringing in a society of intellectuals; and who further saw his family torn apart by wartime injuries and the untimely death of his wife and son.
In fact, the life I've just described is that of Renoir himself. A life full of affliction, dashed hopes, and loss…and yet you will never find a hint of that darkness in his
paintings. Instead, through the gloom,
he persistently, even obsessively clung to this image of the ideal existence –
this dream that we all have alive in our hearts, when we allow ourselves
to dream it.
This dream is so universally present in every person, and it is so unquenchable, even despite the greatest tribulation, that it must be part of the image of God in which we are all created. It is the deep, eternal yearning of our soul that draws us irresistibly toward Him... toward home.
This dream that we dream with Renoir is made perfect by Jesus, when He calls us to "Come to Me all who all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
This dream is so universally present in every person, and it is so unquenchable, even despite the greatest tribulation, that it must be part of the image of God in which we are all created. It is the deep, eternal yearning of our soul that draws us irresistibly toward Him... toward home.
This dream that we dream with Renoir is made perfect by Jesus, when He calls us to "Come to Me all who all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
And so my wish for you is... "sweet dreams."
If this is meaningful to you, feel free to keep the artcoin, or place it in another cache to share it with someone else. Whether it's meaningful to you or not, I'd really like to hear from you about your reaction. If you get a chance, send me a note