Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Paris

Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner circa 1950

Ambroise Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, tableaux, pastels et dessins, vol. I,  Paris, 1918, no. 286, illustrated p. 72

Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 3, Paris, 2010, no. 2432, illustrated p. 424

In the 1880s and 1890s, Renoir devoted himself to the creation of an idealized art undisturbed by modernity.  The female nude had always figured in his work, but came to prominence from the mid-1880s onwards, when Renoir sought to introduce Arcadian themes and classical precision into his art.  Inspired by the works of Raphael which he saw during his visit to Italy in 1881-82, Renoir began to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women.  This is sometimes called his 'Ingres period,' and the realism in the nudes from around this time also suggests that his return to this theme was inspired by the French academic tradition.