When Art for Guernsey opened the Renoir Walk in 2019, our guest of honour was Cyrille Sciama, Director of the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny and a world authority on Renoir. When he delivered a lecture on the artist, the Art for Guernsey team was stunned to find out that the inspiration that the artist found in the island constituted a real inflection point in his career, as the scenes that he witnessed of nude bathers on the beach reminded him of antiquity, Renaissance and Watteau, and motivated him to move away from portraiture and to paint nudes in landscapes.

This discovery motivated Art for Guernsey to syndicate a group of local art collectors to acquire one of Renoir’s original paintings. Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey) is widely considered to be one of the best pieces Renoir painted during his stay and is one of just five of the original ‘Guernsey-painted’ pieces still in private hands; the other 10 sit in major museum collections, which include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Art for Guernsey’s trailblazing exhibition created an opportunity for islanders to rediscover the artwork and celebrate the return of this piece of national heritage to Guernsey. This was the first initiative in a series of events aiming to create an opportunity for all Bailiwick schools to engage directly with the artwork, support local tourism, and team up with French museums to curate an international exhibition to shine a light on the key role Guernsey played in inspiring Renoir’s career, therefore promoting the island through Cultural Diplomacy.

Art for Guernsey engaged with the Disability Alliance to proactively make this event fully accessible to all, and ran a satellite event at the Ron Short Centre showcasing the artworks produced by their members over the lockdown. The private view was hosted by the Lieutenant-Governor, His Excellency Vice Admiral Sir Ian Corder KBE CB.