Nude in the sunlight - Pierre-Auguste Renoir Oil Painting for Sale

Log in | Sign up

contemporary art

English

Nude in the sunlight: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Price: Price on Request
Art Type: Oil Painting
Size:
English Comments: 0
International Comments: 0
Creating Date:
Introduction and Works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir >>

Contemporary-Art.org

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Oil Painting - Nude in the sunlight

Keywords: Nude, sunlight

Work Overview: Nude in the sunlight (Study Torso Sunlight Effect)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Date: c.1876
Style: Impressionism
Period: Association with Impressionists
Genre: nude painting (nu)
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 80 x 64 cm
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Rodin believed that Van Gogh and Renoir were the two greatest painters of their generation.The sculptor was particularly attached to this painting that he was able to purchase from Bernheim-Jeune in 1910, but which he had wanted since 1898. It dates from the period when Renoir, heedful of Ingres and Raphael’s teachings, began distancing himself from Impressionism and giving priority back to line and contours.

Handled like a sketch, this seated young woman attests to the distinctive sculptural qualities found in the painter’s finest nudes. The visible juxtaposed dabs of pure colour form a sort of halo, or mandorla, around the voluptuous female nude. The soft modelling of the body seems to have emerged out of a hazy background, establishing an effect of contrast that could not fail to please Rodin.

A photograph taken at the time shows the painting hanging on the wall – a rare occurrence – above Rodin’s desk in the Hôtel Biron. The sculptor loved to show it to people and comment upon it: “The torso of this young woman is pure sculpture. What a marvel!” (Tirel, 1923). “Look at this Nude by Renoir, look at the quality of this flesh; it shines in the night: it’s a real Praxiteles!” (Revers, 1911).

Renoirs work did shock people in the beginning. When he exhibited his paintings at Société Anonyme, a show in Paris in 1874, critics were dismayed to see simple oil sketches presented as finished works. Two years later his painting Nude in the Sun (also known as Woman's Torso in the Sunlight) was badly received by critic Albert Wolff who claimed he wanted to: "Try to explain to M Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh. " Wolffs contempt for the piece stemmed from the fact that he saw it very much as modern art.

It was clear that Renoir and his associates did not follow the same rules as other artists of the time. They were committed to producing light-suffused paintings which excluded black but this technique was so far removed from traditional formulas that their works were regularly rejected by the Salon, and were difficult to sell.

Out of a riot of glittering brush strokes rises this stunning Nude in the Sunlight. "The most simple subjects are eternal," said Renoir. "The nude woman, whether she emerges from the waves of the sea, or from her own bed, is Venus, or Nini; and one's imagination cannot conceive anything better." The coloring and texture of the body indeed suggest rare sea-shell tints.

Evidently Renoir was delighted with the freshness and spontaneity of this sketch and chose to leave it so. The pearl-like shape and luster of the forms is the major theme, given in the round mass of the haunches and belly, the breasts, shoulders, head, and echoed in the roundness of arms and neck; and a dappled sunlight that plays across the arms and body sustains this motif. Nothing is allowed to distract from the fullness: notice how Renoir has virtually eliminated surface markings like the nipples and navel.

The girl is completely a thing of nature; only Renoir's recurrent bracelet and ring betray a note of feminine vanity. The grasses suddenly part, the scene becomes to our eyes a hubbub of color streaks, and before us is this unforgettable vision of a forest creature, a Rima to delight and trouble the senses.

Copyright Statement:
All the reproduction of any forms about this work unauthorized by Singing Palette including images, texts and so on will be deemed to be violating the Copyright Laws.
To cite this webpage, please link back here.

>> English Comments >> Chinese Comments >> French Comments >> German Comments >>Report