Pierre-Auguste Renoir

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (Limoges, 1841- Cagnes sur Mer, 1919).
"Nude Bather", 1897.
Etching.
Signed in plate in the upper left corner. Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 21.5 x 13.5 cm (plate); 33 x 25 cm (paper); 35.5 x 47.5 cm (frame).

Renoir was one of the most outstanding impressionist painters, distancing himself from the group, however, because of the special attention he paid to the sensuality of the female body, inspired by Renaissance and Baroque painters. In this sense, he studied in depth the work of Titian and, above all, Rubens, to configure his own canon of feminine beauty, emphatic in form and voluptuous in movement. Bathers and muses of Greco-Roman inspiration populated a good number of drawings that, like the one in question, show his predilection for nudes in the open air, which would culminate with "les baigneuses", the great painting he made at the end of his life. The timeless nature, the idyllic vision of the communion of the bodies in the landscape, the sensual fullness of the forms, her graceful gestures, the bold drawing contouring the thighs, all stand out in this composition. The figure with the laurel wreath could refer to the goddess Diana. Starting from Impressionism, Renoir reacted to the gradual disappearance of the form to which other members of the group, such as Monet, had turned, in the face of which he would specialize more and more in nude female figures such as these bathers. As for the drawing on the front, we see Helen of Troy seated on a chaise longue holding the hand of Paris, who stands naked with his lyre. Renoir made other drawings in which he would include a third figure, Paris' brother, Hector, surprising the couple in the room. Also well known is his painting "The Judgment of Paris", a beauty contest in which Helen is the winner. Greek mythology always interested Renoir, who nevertheless always renewed in technique and language the rich legacy of art history.