Bather (Blonde Bather II), 1882 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Pierre-Auguste Renoir also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Bather (Blonde Bather II) is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

The young woman occupies the picture plane with serene self-possession, her nude body kneeling in profile yet revolving gently toward the spectator. Her right hand gathers a swirl of white linen, the gesture anchoring her to the shallow water that washes over graded greens and violets. Behind her, the azure sweep of sea meets a distant headland bathed in lilac haze, while above, a mutable sky drifts from slate to rose. The figure’s pale skin, softly inflected by blushes of coral and cream, is crowned by a cascade of copper-gold hair that dissolves into the marine breeze.

Renoir chooses a palette of restrained richness: ultramarine quenched by turquoise, tempered by pearly neutrals, and set against the warm cadmiums of flesh and hair. The cool arc of the horizon heightens the warmth of the model - Aline Charigot - whose luminous epidermis appears to collect the ambient light even as it releases it. The chromatic conversation is therefore both complementary and atmospheric, sustaining a moisture-laden harmony that conveys the salt tang of the Bay of Naples Renoir evokes.

Close inspection reveals a dialogue between facture and form. The flesh is modelled with thin, translucent veils, each stroke subsumed into its neighbour so that edges slip rather than assert. In the water, however, the brushwork remains tactile and visible, quick dabs and feathered streaks suggesting ripples and reflections. The difference signals Renoir’s recalibration after his Italian sojourn: a renewed respect for drawn contour and sculptural mass, yet without relinquishing the flicker of Impressionist surface.

Compositionally, the bather’s figure forms a supple triangle, apex at the glittering hair, base along the curve of thigh and cloth. Her diagonal arm bridges interior and exterior space, its line echoed by the distant shoreline, guiding the eye in a quiet circuit. Negative space around the torso allows the body to breathe, enhancing its volumetric presence, while the low viewpoint raises the horizon, reinforcing the sense of the figure emerging from water into air.

Painted in 1882 for the dealer Durand-Ruel, this canvas stands at a hinge in Renoir’s development. The encounter with Raphael in Rome encouraged a turn toward classical idealisation, here negotiated with the lingering immediacy of plein-air practice. Charigot’s corporeality is at once timeless and contemporary, a modern Venus whose solidity recalls stone yet whose atmosphere belongs to the mutable present. In balancing these impulses, Renoir articulates an image that is both homage to the past and declaration of his future intentions.