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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Pierre-Auguste Renoir Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
With her full, voluptuous figure and delicately rendered tones, the nude of Femme nue s’essuyant represents an important motif in Renoir’s art during the last decades of his career, and illustrates many of the principal concerns which occupied his art at this time. Painted circa 1909, the present work offers an intimate, sensual view of a young woman at her toilette, her upper body bent at the waist as she reaches down to gently dry her lower leg with a white cloth. Set within a warm interior space, the sitter’s attention is entirely absorbed in this act, leaving her oblivious to the artist’s observation of her bathing routine. With her auburn hair swept up in a loose chignon to avoid the water, she offers the artist a clear view of the elegant curve of her back, drawing the eye down the line of her spine to her shapely hips and buttocks. Balancing her weight on one leg as she dries the other, she rests her head on her arm as she steadies herself on an empty chair in front of her.
Berthe Morisot, recalling a discussion with Renoir about his fascination with the nude female figure, explained that “the nude seemed to him to be one of the most essential forms of art” (quoted in J. House, "Renoir, Between Modernity and Tradition," M. Lucy and J. House, eds., Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 10). Indeed, Renoir had been occupied by the theme of the nude female bather since the 1890s, painting figures both standing and seated, in interior and exterior locations. Often infused with a heady mixture of eroticism and sensuality, these figures adopted both suggestive and coquettish poses. However, at the turn of the 20th century, the artist moved away from these overtly eroticized depictions to focus on the formal qualities of the body. For the artist, these figures were a means of exploring the relationship of color, paint and application in the creation of form. Studying the bodies of his undressed female models in a variety of positions, scenarios and guises, the artist developed a keen appreciation of the ways in which varying effects of light and movement could dramatically alter the color patterns in his subject’s skin. Renoir sought to capture these transient effects in his paintings, and entered a period of prolonged contemplation on the subject from his studio in the idyllic Cagnes-sur-Mer, spanning the years 1908-1919. During this time, the artist began to grow increasingly interested in depicting the feel of his sitter’s flesh, and sought a way of expressing a sense of touch through visual means alone. In Femme nue s’essuyant, Renoir achieves this with a high degree of skill, capturing the warmth and texture of his model’s skin through the subtle layering of opalescent color, inviting his viewer to contemplate the feel of her body as well as its visual beauty. As he stated of this process of capturing the tactility of his model, “I don’t feel a nude is done until I can reach out and pinch it” (quoted in ibid., p. 209).
With her full, voluptuous figure and delicately rendered tones, the nude of Femme nue s’essuyant represents an important motif in Renoir’s art during the last decades of his career, and illustrates many of the principal concerns which occupied his art at this time. Painted circa 1909, the present work offers an intimate, sensual view of a young woman at her toilette, her upper body bent at the waist as she reaches down to gently dry her lower leg with a white cloth. Set within a warm interior space, the sitter’s attention is entirely absorbed in this act, leaving her oblivious to the artist’s observation of her bathing routine. With her auburn hair swept up in a loose chignon to avoid the water, she offers the artist a clear view of the elegant curve of her back, drawing the eye down the line of her spine to her shapely hips and buttocks. Balancing her weight on one leg as she dries the other, she rests her head on her arm as she steadies herself on an empty chair in front of her.
Berthe Morisot, recalling a discussion with Renoir about his fascination with the nude female figure, explained that “the nude seemed to him to be one of the most essential forms of art” (quoted in J. House, "Renoir, Between Modernity and Tradition," M. Lucy and J. House, eds., Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 10). Indeed, Renoir had been occupied by the theme of the nude female bather since the 1890s, painting figures both standing and seated, in interior and exterior locations. Often infused with a heady mixture of eroticism and sensuality, these figures adopted both suggestive and coquettish poses. However, at the turn of the 20th century, the artist moved away from these overtly eroticized depictions to focus on the formal qualities of the body. For the artist, these figures were a means of exploring the relationship of color, paint and application in the creation of form. Studying the bodies of his undressed female models in a variety of positions, scenarios and guises, the artist developed a keen appreciation of the ways in which varying effects of light and movement could dramatically alter the color patterns in his subject’s skin. Renoir sought to capture these transient effects in his paintings, and entered a period of prolonged contemplation on the subject from his studio in the idyllic Cagnes-sur-Mer, spanning the years 1908-1919. During this time, the artist began to grow increasingly interested in depicting the feel of his sitter’s flesh, and sought a way of expressing a sense of touch through visual means alone. In Femme nue s’essuyant, Renoir achieves this with a high degree of skill, capturing the warmth and texture of his model’s skin through the subtle layering of opalescent color, inviting his viewer to contemplate the feel of her body as well as its visual beauty. As he stated of this process of capturing the tactility of his model, “I don’t feel a nude is done until I can reach out and pinch it” (quoted in ibid., p. 209).