Bather Drying her Right Arm, Large Sitting Nude

In 1912 Renoir had an attack of paralysis and lost the use of his legs. He was 71, living at Cagnes above the Mediterranean, his hands already locked up by years of rheumatism. A doctor got him onto his feet for a few steps, he decided it cost more energy than it was worth, took the wheelchair and went on painting nudes at the rate of a much younger man. This is one of them, warm and heavy and looking back at Titian and Rubens rather than forward. The model was probably Gabrielle Renard, a cousin of his wife who had been in the household since 1894. It hangs in Sao Paulo because a press baron and an Italian museum director spent the late 1940s persuading Brazilian businessmen to buy European paintings, and a long list of donors paid for this one in 1948.