In Les Grandes Baigneuses (Renoir), how is the Composition and technique of the Painting elucidated?
Renoir worked on The Bathers for three years until he was content with its composition. During that time, he made over 20 studies and sketches, including at least two full-sized figure drawings of the theme. The painting was composed using contradictory artistic styles and techniques. The left side of the painting is more indebted to the Classical tradition whereas the right portion is more consistent with Impressionism.
The two large bathers dominating the left side of the painting have a highly real, sculpture-like quality. The artist uses precise lines and edges to clearly delineate between these two figures and the background. Renoir also uses lines to define the features of these two nudes, capturing fine details such as the ears, hair, and lips, giving these bathers a lifelike, tactile quality. Prior to this painting, Renoir worked in the Impressionist style, painting directly onto the canvas, capturing his impressions of fleeting moments with quick, spontaneous brushstrokes. In contrast, the style of this painting, at least in its left half, has been described as "anti-Impressionist," as Renoir utilized a very different technique, carefully tracing the two large bathers onto the canvas from exact drawings of the figures.: 107 The right side of the painting and the surroundings of these two large bathers show features of Renoir’s typical Impressionist style. The smaller bathers in the right background and the surrounding landscape were painted directly onto the canvas, with small, loose brush strokes. The features of the smaller nudes and the surrounding landscape are more blurred, less detailed, and less precise. The figures in the foreground have a sculptural quality, while the landscape behind them shimmers with impressionistic light. The combination of these two conflicting styles within the painting has a strange visual effect, making the two large bathers in the foreground appear like cut outs, pasted onto the painting.With this new style, Renoir's intention was to reconcile the modern forms of painting with the painting traditions of the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly those of Ingres and Raphael. Renoir also admired the works of Rubens and Titian, and he tried to find a compromise between the styles of these old masters and the new Impressionist style.The Bathers may also be regarded as Renoir's pictorial testament. The models for the three bathers included two of his favorites: Aline Charigot, the seated blonde woman, whom Renoir married in 1890, and Suzanne Valadon, herself a painter and the mother of Maurice Utrillo.
Impressionism Impressionist style Raphael Maurice Utrillo Rubens Suzanne Valadon Titian Aline Charigot Impressionist composition Renoir Ingres