Description
Nymph by a Stream – a nude laid right across the length of the canvas
| Year of creation: | 1869–1870 |
| Original size: | 66.7 cm x 122.9 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | National Gallery, London |
A Nymph by a Stream is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, made in 1869 and 1870. The original measures 66.7 cm x 122.9 cm, is recorded under inventory number NG5982 and is held by the National Gallery in London, which bought it in 1951. Our art reproduction A Nymph by a Stream is painted by hand in oils on canvas, in eight sizes from 90 x 50 to 175 x 97 cm.
The jet she catches in her hand
A young nude figure lies right across the width of the canvas on a mossy bank beside water. With her left hand she catches the jet running from a stone, and she turns her head towards the viewer; a blue ribbon is tied in her hair. Dark foliage leans over her, and to the right the bank opens into pale green grass scattered with white flowers. The signature “A. Renoir” is painted in the lower right corner.
Why hand-painted, not a print
Our version is not a print. The canvas comes from the beginning of Renoir’s career, when he was painting beside the Seine with Monet, and it carries two handlings at once: the body smooth and pale, almost porcelain-like, the setting laid in quickly and broadly. A painting made by hand can hold that difference in the speed of the stroke; print reduces both handlings to the same density of dots.
In the room
The format is markedly elongated, almost twice as wide as it is tall, so the canvas wants a long, low wall it can stretch along: above a low chest of drawers, above a headboard, or in a hallway. Above a piece of furniture it works best when the canvas is at least as wide as the furniture beneath it, otherwise it looks cramped. The green and bluish range sits well with wood and a cooler wall. For a short wall 110 x 60 cm is enough, for a longer one we recommend 150 x 85 cm, and for a really long wall 175 x 97 cm.
What you receive
We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. A Nymph by a Stream arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.
- Subject: reclining nude on a mossy bank with a blue ribbon in her hair, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
- Sizes: 8 sizes, from 90 x 50 cm to 175 x 97 cm, another size on request
- Detail worth knowing: painted at the beginning of Renoir’s career, when he was working beside the Seine with Monet
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