The Bathers
by WIMAR, Carl, Oil on canvas, 110 x 160 cm
After 1900 Renoir mainly lived in the south of France. Shortly before his death - by then the nearly 80-year-old artist was crippled in a wheelchair and had to have his paintbrush tied to his twisted arthritic fingers - Renoir devoted himself to a series of composition with nude bathers.
His markedly violent method of painting conflicts with the physical condition of the artist. The large painting which shows two voluminous women reclining at leisure in a lush landscape has the effect of an improvisation placed directly onto the canvas. Over the long years of his career as an artist Renoir had created an extensive repertoire of female nudes and poses which he was able to call upon quite easily, now that he was painting the Bathers. By using thinly applied colours he endowed his nudes with a liveliness which turns them into embodiments of sheer vitality.