大浴女

By the mid-1880s Renoir had grown restless with Impressionism. The soft, dissolved surfaces that had made his name no longer satisfied him, and after a trip to Italy, where he studied Raphael and old frescoes, he wanted firm drawing and clear edges again. This large canvas was his attempt to prove he could do it. He worked on it for three years, from 1884 to 1887, making drawing after drawing, at least two of them full-size, which was an extraordinary effort for a painter once known for quick, spontaneous work. In the foreground young women sit and splash at the water's edge, their skin firmly outlined against a looser, more Impressionist landscape behind. Renoir thought this was his masterpiece and expected people to be amazed. Instead many of his old admirers were baffled by the hard new style, and the picture was coolly received. He never again poured that much labor into a single work, and within a few years his manner softened once more. It came to Philadelphia in the 20th century, a record of the moment one of the Impressionists deliberately tried to leave Impressionism behind.