Renoir's Bathers
Bathers were Renoir's great subject in the second half of his career, from the carefully drawn Large Bathers to the warm late nudes.
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About the series
Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted bathers and nudes throughout his life, but after the mid-1880s they became his main subject. They show women beside water or in landscapes, with soft light on skin and loose, warm backgrounds.
The Large Bathers, painted from 1884 to 1887 and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, marks a turn away from Impressionism. After a visit to Italy, Renoir drew the figures with firm outlines inspired by Raphael and French classical art. His later bathers return to softer brushwork, with glowing reds and pinks. The Bathers, painted in 1918 and 1919 at Cagnes-sur-Mer in the south of France shortly before his death, is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Renoir painted it despite severe arthritis, which forced him to work from a wheelchair in his last years.
Single bathers are often upright and suit a bedroom or bathroom. The large group scenes are wide and need a generous wall.
