Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Reclining Nude

Reclining Nude – a nude figure laid into the landscape

Reclining Nude is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1890. The original measures 41.5 cm x 33 cm and is held by the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes, from 42 x 33 to 150 x 120 cm. The smallest of them, 42 x 33 cm, matches the measurement of the original, and 90 x 70 cm is the most asked-for middle step.

The back, the scarf, and light in the open

On the canvas a nude female figure is laid into the landscape. She is turned away from the viewer and partly covered by a scarf, so she does not look out of the painting and makes no contact – the scene stays observed rather than performed. In the early 1890s Renoir began to paint nude figures, opening a new period in his work. He was influenced by Raphael, Titian and Rubens, whom he discovered on his many travels, and he turned more and more to the effects of natural light on skin.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. Skin in natural light is the hardest test a reproduction faces: it is made of long, barely perceptible passages between warm and cool tone, without a single hard edge. The screen divides those passages into bands and the skin takes on the look of paper. A hand-painted canvas keeps the passage flowing, and the stroke stays visible and of differing density, so the body remains a body even from close to.

In the room

The original is small and the scene is intimate, so we do not suggest it for the main wall of a shared room. It works better where few people see it and from close to: a bedroom, a dressing room, a study, or the hallway of the private part of a home. For a place like that we suggest 60 x 50 or 80 x 65 cm. The measurement of the original, 42 x 33 cm, suits a shelf or a narrow wall. Above 120 x 100 cm the figure becomes larger than life, which is a considered choice and not a default.

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. Reclining Nude 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 figure in the open, turned away from the viewer, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 42 x 33 cm to 150 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the figure is turned away and partly covered by a scarf, so the scene stays observed rather than performed

See also:

• Wheatfield
• The Bathers
• A Nymph by a Stream