Great artists throughout history have expressed the human experience in a universal language of form and beauty. The Montblanc Masters of Art Collection honors their eternal contribution to the quest for perfection in art – a quest Montblanc both celebrates and participates in. Pierre-Auguste Renoir is one of the most prominent forerunners of modernism, whose sun-drenched paintings helped set the tone for an entire movement: Impressionism. Acknowledging with respect the pioneering achievement of this distinguished French Impressionist, Montblanc has created the Masters of Art Homage to Pierre-Auguste Renoir Limited Edition 8, inspired by the monumental The Great Bathers, a creative milestone in his ‘Ingresque’ period. The hand-painted lacquer on cap and barrel echoes the colours chosen for this painting, while the view of the back of the girl bathing in the foreground is selected as the central figure on the barrel, as an artfully hand-engraved solid Au 750 gold inlay created using the scrimshaw technique. The finely worked depiction is enhanced by an intricate hand-engraved solid Au 750 gold overlay in the look of a vintage picture frame. As if to underline the artistic ambition and atmosphere of Renoir’s The Great Bathers, the fittings of the richly ornamented cap are adorned with rings of brilliant-cut diamonds. In tribute to the virtuosity of Renoir’s nuanced use of the brush to apply paint – vigorous, sweeping movements for expansive surfaces and delicate, feather-light touches for the contours of a face – the clip takes the form of two brushes, the tip of the flat one seemingly still coated in blue, as if just laid aside by the artist upon completion of one of his masterpieces. The cap top ring bears the engraving 1883, marking the beginning of Renoir’s reorientation towards his ‘Ingresque’ period. Crowning the cap is a Montblanc diamond whose outline is echoed in the engraved guilloche pattern of its solid Au 750 gold setting. As a tribute to Renoir’s drawing skills, a tip made of soft solid Au 999 gold is integrated into the cone of the edition, giving the holder the means to create sketches of their own using the metal point technique. The hand-crafted solid Au 750 gold nib is adorned with a diamond and an engraved image borrowed from one of Renoir’s last self-portraits from 1899.