Joven bañándose

1892 was the year France finally embraced Renoir, when the state bought one of his paintings for a national collection, the official recognition he had waited decades for. This bather comes from that moment of arrival. By now he had left behind the hard-edged experiments of the 1880s and settled into the warm, rounded nudes in open landscapes he would paint for the rest of his life. The first owner of this canvas was his old friend Claude Monet, who admired the figure but thought the background scenery rather ordinary. She sits at the water's edge, her skin catching a soft pinkish light against the cooler greens and blues behind her.