Its name, after the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1976.

[1] Renoir is a peak ring basin, one of 110 on Mercury,[2] including Raditladi and Rachmaninoff.

[3] It is thought to have formed at the end of the period with the highest meteor impact rates in Mercury's history.

[4] Renoir also has an area of high reflectance, classified as a plain, resulting from previous volcanic activity on the planet.

[5][6] Like Rachmaninoff, it is a basin with a high-reflectance plain located entirely within the central peak ring.