Standing Bather c. 1910

Renoir’s ‘Standing Bather’ feels like it was painted in a garden, en plein air, as they say. Just by looking at the scumbles of paint that shape the woman’s body, I can almost feel the sun on my skin! I wonder if Renoir was thinking of Rubens or Titian when he painted this woman, or was he just trying to capture the light as it flickered across her skin? Her skin has all the colours of the landscape around her, pinks, yellows, and greens. And look how he's captured the shadow on her back, and the way the light catches the curve of her hip! For me, the painting isn’t really about a nude, it’s about how light falls on the body, and how paint can capture a fleeting moment of beauty. And he did it so casually, like he was just sketching in his notebook! It reminds you that every painter is inspired by other painters across time, and they all inform each other’s work.