Description
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Diana
| Year of creation: | 1867 |
| Original size: | 129.5 cm x 199.5 cm |
| Painting style: | Realism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | National Gallery of Art, Washington |
The nude figure sits on a rocky ledge and grips a large bow with both hands. A green animal skin falls across her lap, tied with a red cord, and at her feet lies a felled deer with an arrow in its flank. Grey rock rises behind her; at the upper left a patch of blue sky opens between yellowing leaves. The signature and date are painted in the lower right corner.
The painting dates from 1867. Renoir set it up as a mythological Diana, goddess of the hunt, but painted the model in wholly bodily terms and without flattery — which is exactly why the Salon rejected it. The bow, the skin and the deer were added so that the nude would carry an acceptable mythological title; the figure itself remains a study of a real body in natural light.
The original measures 129.5 cm x 199.5 cm and is oil on canvas. It is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington under inventory number 1963.10.205.
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 40 x 60 cm to 110 x 170 cm. It is a painting in oils, not a print.
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