He saved his pennies until he could enroll in art school at age 21. When in art school, he sat for months copying a few outline drawings and drawing the same plaster statue.

Then he was finally given an opportunity to paint.

"Young man," the teacher yelled as he passed Renoir, "the rest of us are trying to be serious artists. No doubt you dabble in paint to amuse yourself."

"If I didn't enjoy painting," Renoir replied, "I certainly wouldn't do it.',

Soon the teacher was yelling at another student.

"Why, you have painted the model just as he actually looks. That is very ugly! Awful! When you paint a figure, Mr. Monet, you must make him look like a Greek god. Nature offers no interest at all. Beauty is everything."

Renoir and Monet soon became friends. They left the art school and turned to the streets of Paris, vowing to paint only what they saw. And what they saw was light.

There were few sales, and Renoir sometimes had to take bread from his home to Monet so he would have something to eat. Monet eventually went blind and Renoir became so crippled with arthritis that he had to have the brushes strapped to his hand in order to paint.