Renoir faced many trials. Thirty years of depressing poverty and homelessness, followed by thirty years of painful life in captivity of an incurable illness, inexorably threatening to deprive the aging artist of the opportunity to paint. A true life of overcoming was destined for the author of light, sparkling canvases, an unsurpassed singer of earthly joys, as Renoir was destined to go down in the history of painting. The biography, published in 2017 by the authoritative researcher of the artist’s life and work, Barbara Ehrlich-White, was the result of several decades of studying the artist’s work , an extensive corpus of sources, including testimonies from contemporaries, newspaper publications, as well as about three thousand letters written by Renoir, to Renoir and about Renoir. Having analyzed these invaluable materials, the author piece by piece collects the image of one of the most familiar to the viewer and at the same time complex and controversial artists, with facts in hand, refuting common misconceptions about his character, relationships with colleagues, dealers and models.