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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue critique of Pierre-Auguste Renoir being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute established from the archives of François Daulte, Durand-Ruel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein.
Unlike many of his fellow Impressionist artists who turned away from depicting the female nude which they considered reminiscent of academic painting, Renoir dedicated a central part of his art to this particular theme. Throughout his career he made a point of conveying female beauty, sometimes rendering his nudes as the timeless glory of the feminine ideal, other times as the ephemeral charms of the frail creature of the earth. "If God had not created women's chest, I don't know if I would have been a painter" (the artist quoted in J. Clay, L'Impressionnisme, Paris, 1971, p. 124).
In spite of this inclination, Renoir rarely depicted the nude in his works prior to 1880. The artist was restrained by Impressionist precepts and mainly painted subjects of modern-day life. The few times he tried to depict nudes in the Impressionist manner during this period were met with derision. Of a 1876 nude, one critic wrote: "a woman's torso is not a mass of flesh in the process of decomposition with green and violet spots which denote the state of complete putrefaction of a corpse!" (A. Wolffs quoted in J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1974, p. 369). From the early 1880s onwards, Renoir slowly distanced himself from Impressionism. As he would tell the art dealer Ambroise Vollard around 1883: "I had wrung Impressionism dry, and I finally came to the conclusion that I knew neither how to paint nor how to draw. In a word, Impressionism was a blind alley, as far as I was concerned" (quoted in F. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Boston, 2009, p. 663).
Trying at the same time to shrug off the destructive criticism of the audience, and to ignore Impressionism's rejection of studio and academic painting, Renoir attempted to reconcile his desire to paint directly from nature with his aspiration to depict the nude in the footsteps of his role models Rubens, Titian, Fragonard and Boucher. Since the moment Renoir travelled to Italy in 1881, one year before the present painting was executed, the influence of these long-gone masters can be seen on his œuvre. John House has written: "On his travels Renoir painted many landscapes and informal outdoor subjects, but his more serious efforts were reserved for themes which tread the borderline between everyday life and idyll themes with obvious echoes of eighteenth century art. He painted a long series of nudes, mainly young girls in outdoor settings, whom in a letter he called his 'nymphs'" (Renoir, exh. cat., London, 1985, pp. 250-251).
Etude de nu depicts one of these nymphs, resting languidly in a green setting. Her legs and arms easily crossed in a relaxed posture, she takes a nap, her face relaxed in a dream, as if unconscious of the painter, or the viewer, taking in her voluptuous nudity. Her form, not yet exaggerated as it will be later in the artist's career, already comes closer to the sensual yet unambiguous manner of the post-Renaissance masters.
Unlike many of his fellow Impressionist artists who turned away from depicting the female nude which they considered reminiscent of academic painting, Renoir dedicated a central part of his art to this particular theme. Throughout his career he made a point of conveying female beauty, sometimes rendering his nudes as the timeless glory of the feminine ideal, other times as the ephemeral charms of the frail creature of the earth. "If God had not created women's chest, I don't know if I would have been a painter" (the artist quoted in J. Clay, L'Impressionnisme, Paris, 1971, p. 124).
In spite of this inclination, Renoir rarely depicted the nude in his works prior to 1880. The artist was restrained by Impressionist precepts and mainly painted subjects of modern-day life. The few times he tried to depict nudes in the Impressionist manner during this period were met with derision. Of a 1876 nude, one critic wrote: "a woman's torso is not a mass of flesh in the process of decomposition with green and violet spots which denote the state of complete putrefaction of a corpse!" (A. Wolffs quoted in J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1974, p. 369). From the early 1880s onwards, Renoir slowly distanced himself from Impressionism. As he would tell the art dealer Ambroise Vollard around 1883: "I had wrung Impressionism dry, and I finally came to the conclusion that I knew neither how to paint nor how to draw. In a word, Impressionism was a blind alley, as far as I was concerned" (quoted in F. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Boston, 2009, p. 663).
Trying at the same time to shrug off the destructive criticism of the audience, and to ignore Impressionism's rejection of studio and academic painting, Renoir attempted to reconcile his desire to paint directly from nature with his aspiration to depict the nude in the footsteps of his role models Rubens, Titian, Fragonard and Boucher. Since the moment Renoir travelled to Italy in 1881, one year before the present painting was executed, the influence of these long-gone masters can be seen on his œuvre. John House has written: "On his travels Renoir painted many landscapes and informal outdoor subjects, but his more serious efforts were reserved for themes which tread the borderline between everyday life and idyll themes with obvious echoes of eighteenth century art. He painted a long series of nudes, mainly young girls in outdoor settings, whom in a letter he called his 'nymphs'" (Renoir, exh. cat., London, 1985, pp. 250-251).
Etude de nu depicts one of these nymphs, resting languidly in a green setting. Her legs and arms easily crossed in a relaxed posture, she takes a nap, her face relaxed in a dream, as if unconscious of the painter, or the viewer, taking in her voluptuous nudity. Her form, not yet exaggerated as it will be later in the artist's career, already comes closer to the sensual yet unambiguous manner of the post-Renaissance masters.