Renard was educated at Nevers and in Paris. After his marriage in 1888, he devoted himself to writing. Above all an artist (he described himself as a “hunter of images”), he used acutely observed detail in his descriptive writing. His sketches of animal life in Histoires naturelles (1896) are models of their kind. Although he spent most of his life in Paris, he never lost touch with his native countryside; and in Les Philippe (1907), Nos frères farouches, and Ragotte (both 1908), he depicted rural life with amused penetration and cruel realism. He also wrote plays, including a dramatized version of Poil de carotte (1900). He was a founder member of the Mercure de France (1890) and was elected to the Académie Goncourt (1907). His Journal, in 17 volumes (1925–27), was translated into English in 1964.