Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919)
Après le bain (After the bath)
1876
Oil on canvas, 92.4 × 73.2 cm
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
The woman’s gaze is dreamily directed into space. She seems to pause as she dries herself and feels unobserved. Lively brushstrokes play around her body, shimmering sunlight highlights its forms. Where the bath took place remains unclear. The background – perhaps a shady spot on the bank – is just pure, abstract color matter. Renoir went down in history as a co-founder of Impressionism. He dealt with the subject of bathers again and again throughout his life. Here he stages his model as a fleeting snapshot. It is Anna, a penniless girl from Montmartre, who we also encounter in two other works by the painter. (Belvedere)