Lot 228 Dα

This impressive large-format sheet featuring the soft-edged drawing of a female nude seen from behind and in profile, turning slightly to the right, was probably created around 1910 to 1912 - it shows Renoir's favourite model during his late years. It is well known that Gabrielle Renard had already entered the household of the Renoirs in 1894 as a servant and particularly as a nanny for Jean; in Cagnes, until 1912, she would prove to be a veritably ideal nude model for the artist. In the classicism and fullness of her appearance she corresponded precisely to the artist's wishes, who rediscovered the female nude as a subject matter in his late work, creating diverse variations on it and stylising it into the grand, Baroque-classicistic as well as timeless theme of his painting. In the present drawing, a gracefully reserved study of the motion of a “Female Bather”, the abundant drapery surrounds the seated figure. Renoir drew and modelled a specific pose and a gesture which he could then repeatedly rework in his paintings. Thus, for example, the selected view is reminiscent of the 1912 picture “Baigneuse assise s'essuyant le bras droit” (Dauberville 4331), one of the large paintings of nudes that once adorned an entire wall of the Bernheim-Jeune dining room (see photo for comparison).