A New Renoir at the Morgan

Between 1884 and 1887, Renoir’s most significant project was the large horizontal canvas of The Great Bathers, which he exhibited on 8 June 1887 at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. The painting, today in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, depicts three female nudes under a peerless summer sky. Colin B. Bailey, Director, discusses how for this large composition, Renoir made at least twenty preparatory drawings and figure studies in various formats and media, of which the Morgan’s recent acquisition is one of the most ambitious and most perfectly preserved.