Seated Bather Drying Her Leg

This is the latest of Renoir's nudes at the Orangerie, dated 1914, and the museum also holds one of his earliest, a woman drying her leg by the water from 1883. The subject barely changes, a woman seated on drapery, bending to dry one leg. The handling changes completely. In 1883, back from Italy, the painter gave the body a firm, clear contour. Here, 31 years on, the strokes are long and thick, laid side by side so the surface shimmers, with heavy paint in some places and the weave of the canvas showing through in others. Her skin and hair are worked in reds, pinks, whites, set against a green-brown ground. The picture first belonged to the Paris dealer Paul Rosenberg. In 1924, five years after Renoir's death, it was bought by Paul Guillaume, the dealer whose collection forms the core of the Orangerie.