Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Diana

Diana – a nude that had to become a goddess before it could be shown

Diana is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, made in 1867. The original measures 129.5 cm x 199.5 cm, is recorded under inventory number 1963.10.205 and is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Our hand-painted painting Diana is worked in oils on canvas, in eight upright sizes from 60 x 90 to 130 x 200 cm.

The bow, the skin and the felled deer

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.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. This is an early work, still Realist in conception: the body is carried through with clear drawing and a dense, steady application of the kind the Salon expected – and the Salon rejected it anyway. The bow, the skin and the deer were added so that the nude would carry an acceptable mythological title. A hand-painted painting Diana can follow that fine working of skin and cloth, which printed paper reduces to an even screen.

In the room

The figure fills nearly the whole canvas and looks past the viewer, so the work asks for no empty space around it but a quiet, narrow wall: beside a door, in a stairwell, in an entrance hall, or at the end of a corridor where the eye comes to rest anyway. The grey rock and the yellowing leaves sit well with warm wood and a white, sand or pale grey wall; in front of a strongly painted wall the wall colour competes with the flesh tones and the scene flattens out. At 80 x 120 cm she stays at the natural scale of a smaller room and can be looked at from close to. Where the wall is high and you can step back, 110 x 170 cm carries her, and on a really large wall 130 x 200 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. Diana 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: seated nude with a large bow, a green animal skin and a felled deer at her feet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 60 x 90 cm to 130 x 200 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the work was submitted to the Paris Salon and turned down, although it was painted exactly to that taste, with clear drawing and a dense, steady application

See also:

• Bather with a Griffon Dog
• A Nymph by a Stream
• The Large Bathers