Nude with Figure in Background

c. 1882

Auguste Renoir

Artist, French, 1841 - 1919

A nude woman with pale pink and white-colored skin is loosely painted in a landscape in this vertical composition. She seems to move off to our left, her back to us as she pulls a white cloth across her body, but she turns to look over her left shoulder. Her hair is touched with lime green, her eyes and mouth are pink dots, and her body and the drapery are shaded with pale violet. A second person wearing a dark suit, a tall, dark hat, and a vivid yellow cravat walks, slumping slightly, to our right in the background. Trees and bushes in the landscape are painted with swirls of laurel green and cobalt blue with swipes of white for the trunks. Bands of canary yellow, rose pink, and lapis blue are near the right edge of the painting just behind the woman’s upper legs. The edges of the canvas are unpainted or thinly painted. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Renoir.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 12.8 x 8.3 cm (5 1/16 x 3 1/4 in.)
    framed: 22.9 x 18.4 x 2.5 cm (9 x 7 1/4 x 1 in.)

  • Accession

    1970.17.74

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Ambroise Vollard [1867-1939], Paris). Capt. Edward H. Molyneux [1891-1974], Paris, by 1952;[1] sold 15 August 1955 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA.
[1]Exhibited as part of the Molyneux collection in 1952 at the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1952

  • French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1952, unnumbered checklist, as Nude.

1958

  • Paintings from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, 1958, no. 32, as Nude

1961

  • French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century from the Collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1961, no. 51, repro

1978

  • Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 66, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

Bibliography

1918

  • Vollard, Ambroise. Tableaux, Pastels & Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Paris, 1918:74, repro.

1971

  • Daulte, Francois. Auguste Renoir, catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint. Vol.I. Figures 1860-1890. Lausanne, 1971: no. 416

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 300, repro.

1978

  • Small French Paintings from the Bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978: 66, repro. (continuing exhibition beginning in 1978).

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 346, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: renoir.

Wikidata ID

Q20189527

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