A leader amongst Impressionist painters, Renoir was renowned for his portrayal of happy, harmonious scenes. And, under his brush, all the delights of the European bourgeoisie during the mid-to late 19th century were made eternal. He captured their plump figures, glowing faces, sparkling eyes, and gentle characters. His fingers were bent, and it was impossible for him to paint in the cold of Paris. But he lived for art, so he bound the brush to his hand with a cloth wrap, persisting in his work, and leaving us with a famous saying, ‘La douleur passe, la beauté reste.’ He shed the ostentatious fashions and the scenes from people's social lives that he had depicted in his earlier work. In a series of works named after Venus or bathing women and span from 1909 to 1919, Renoir reveals bits and pieces from his unwavering pursuit of the idyllic feminine beauty. Among the women who surrounded the artist were wife, lovers, nannies, maids, and models, all performing the roles of either caretaker or lover, or a live figure in the artist's paintings of paradise. In 1913, art dealer Ambroise Vollard introduced him to a man from Catalonia, Spain named Richard Guino. Before Renoir passed away in 1919, the two had made models for 37 sculptural works, all completed with Guino's hands and Renoir's mind.