Seated Bather (Baigneuse assise)
c. 1905
Medium
soft ground etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.16.209
Art Historical Context
Step into the luminous world of Auguste Renoir's *Seated Bather (Baigneuse assise)*, a soft ground etching from around 1905, now housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection. Renoir, the celebrated French Impressionist known for his vibrant depictions of everyday life and voluptuous female figures, turned to printmaking in his later years. By this time, battling arthritis, he embraced etching to capture his enduring fascination with the female nude, evoking a sense of relaxed intimacy and classical grace amid dappled light. Soft ground etching, a technique Renoir refined with ...
About the Artist
Auguste Renoir · 1841–1919
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a founding figure of Impressionism whose luminous depictions of Parisian leisure, sensuous female forms, and sun-dappled landscapes made him one of the most beloved painters in Western art history. Born in Limoges to a working-class family, Renoir began as a porcelain painter before pursuing fine arts, and this early craft experience gave him facility with the...