Description
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Bather with a Griffon Dog
| Year of creation: | 1870 |
| Original size: | 115.0 cm x 183.5 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil |
The nude figure stands at the centre of the canvas on a grassy bank, her body turned towards the viewer and her eyes lowered. In her right hand she holds a white chemise with a red ribbon, falling across a heap of linen. At the lower left a small black-and-tan griffon lies on striped cloth; behind her to the right a clothed woman rests in the grass. To the left, between willow branches, the view opens onto water and low hills.
The painting dates from 1870, from Renoir’s early years. The figure is built with firm, almost academic drawing of the kind the Salon then demanded, while the foliage and fabrics around her are painted far more freely. It is in exactly that contrast — a carefully finished body against a rapidly laid-in setting — that one can already see the painter who would help found Impressionism a few years later.
The original measures 115.0 cm x 183.5 cm and is oil on canvas. It is held by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in Brazil under inventory number MASP.00095.
Our version is a hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas. Every canvas is painted individually to order, so no two are exactly alike. It is available in eight upright sizes, from 42 x 70 cm to 110 x 170 cm. It is a painting in oils, not a print.
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