Read the visual description
Shown from the knees up, a nearly nude, young woman with pale pink skin stands with her hands on her upswept, chestnut-brown hair in front of a pile of cloth, probably clothing, in this vertical painting. Blended brushstrokes give the painting a soft, almost blurred look. She stands with her body angled slightly to our left and her head tipped forward under her hands, which work in her hair. Her cheeks are flushed and her wide, pink lips are closed. Her round breasts are firm, and a piece of bright white fabric is bunched around her upper thighs below a smooth pubic area. Garments in the pile of fabric behind her are petal pink, vivid white, ruby red, and buttercup yellow. The area behind and around the woman and fabric is loosely painted with sage green, caramel brown, and golden yellow. Touches of yellow on a field of green to our right suggest grass and flowers. The artist signed the work with dark paint in the lower right corner: “Renoir.”
National Gallery of Art · Painting
Bather Arranging Her Hair
Auguste Renoir
- Date
- 1893
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- overall: 92.4 × 74 cm (36 3/8 × 29 1/8 in.) framed: 110.2 x 94 cm (43 3/8 x 37 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 1963.10.204
- Credit line
- Chester Dale Collection
- Time span
- 1876 to 1900
- Department
- CF
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- French
- female
- figure
- Impressionist
- Nude
- Bather
- Three-quarters
Provenance
(Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris); (Galerie Georges Petit, Paris).[1] Alexandre Berthier [1883-1918], 4th Prince de Wagram, Paris; sold probably by his heirs though (Canadeesche Hypothek Bank) through (Étienne Bignou, Paris) to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London); on joint account with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris) and (Marcel Kapferer); sold May 1929 through (Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris) to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York;[2] bequest 1963 to NGA. [1]Vollard and Petit according to annotated photograph in Bignou albums at the documentation center of the Musée d'Orsay (copies in NGA curatorial files). [2] Purchased in May 1929 per Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial files. Letters dated June-July 1929 from Etienne Bignou document his sending the Wagram pictures to London (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 218). Reid & Lefèvre Paintings Sold, sheet no. 206, #18/29 B1412 gives acquisition source and partial share information, and sale date of October 1929 (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 283). See also M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Painting Stockbook no. 5, London 1928-1939, and Stockbook no. 8, New York, no. A622; copies in NGA curatorial files
Inscription
lower right: Renoir.
NGA object ID 46679. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.