Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Galerie Odermatt, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the late 1990s

Paris, Galerie Pétridès, Hommage à Renoir, 1950, no. 33, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Galerie Yoshii, Renoir, 1980, no. 9, illustrated in colour

Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, Pastels et Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, San Francisco, 1989, no. 285, illustrated p. 72
Guy-Patrice & Michel Dauberville, Renoir, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, 1911-1919, Paris, 2014, no. 4342, illustrated p. 426

The canvas is lined and there do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. Some very minor hairline craquelure on the figures back and lower arm. This work is in overall very good condition.
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Glowing with beauty and grace, Torse nu epitomises the most celebrated elements of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s mature œuvre. As the artist’s work developed, his style began to evolve from his earlier Impressionist works, becoming increasing influenced by Renaissance masters like Raphael, Titian and Rubens. Awed by their technical mastery and classical subject matter, Renoir developed his own highly personal classicism rooted in a respect for tradition and the old masters. This revitalised approach was also influenced by his life in the South of France, where he lived for the last two decades of his life. Renoir revealed his motivation to capture an Arcadian vision in this period in the following statement: ‘what admirable beings the Greeks were. Their existence was so happy that they imagined the Gods came down to earth to find their paradise and to make love. Yes, the earth was the paradise of the gods […] that is what I want to paint’ (quoted in Renoir in the 20^th Century (exhibition catalogue), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, 2010, p. 37).

In the present work, the artist celebrates the beauty and sensuality of femininity through his delicate portrayal of the sitter. The subject is typical of his models, with pale but flushed skin, a full figure and a dream like quality. Renoir uses his fluid, loose brushstrokes to great effect, which lends the figure a shimmering, almost ethereal quality. The rich, moulded colours of the background are in total harmony with the figure, at once absorbing and releasing her from the canvas. The artist’s happiness in his idyllic rural life during this period transcends itself onto the canvas of Torse nu, an archetypal example of the artist’s much-loved paintings of nudes. Henri Matisse described Renoir’s late nudes as ‘the loveliest nudes ever painted: no one has done better - no one […] I’ve always felt, that recorded time holds no nobler story, no more heroic, no more magnificent achievement than that of Renoir’ (Henri Matisse quoted in ibid., p. 136).