Pierre Auguste Renoir The Bathers Analysis

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is well-known for being a Parisian painter but mainly for being a French impressionist painter. Renoir and his interest in art is partially attributed to his family in recognizing his artistic talents by setting him up with a porcelain painter. This marked the beginning of his journey in the art world. In reference to the impressionist movement, which emerged from Paris, France around the late 1860s and 1870s, it is associated with the manner of painting emphasized by a specific circle of French artists. However, during the period of 1884-1887, Renoir went through what has been labeled as the “anti-impressionist” phase marked by the creation of The Bathers. The medium of this painting is oil on canvas. Renoir worked on this painting in France between the years 1884-1887 and it can currently be viewed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. This paper will assess why the style of this painting was unconventional to the Impressionist movement and what made …show more content…
All five figures recall four of his past works. The two bather on the left reminiscence Diana (1867); the swimming midground figure and landscape, Nude in the Sunlight (1876); the central foreground nude, Blond Bather (1881); and the left foreground nude and midground standing nude, Bather Arranging Her Hair (1885). The landscape takes after Impressionism, which is important to note because it indicates that although he was trying out new styles and themes as well as experimenting with new mediums, he would somewhat still remain loyal to Impressionism. Impressionism would not be something that he will completely successfully separate himself from as he continued on in his career. Renoir used nineteen preparatory studies in the creation of The Bathers; this suggested that he struggled with the posture, form and technique of the