For over a century, the world has celebrated Pierre-Auguste Renoir as one of Impressionism's greatest masters. Yet there exists an entire dimension of Renoir's artistic practice that has remained largely unexplored: his profound and prolific work on paper.
A landmark exhibition, organized by The Morgan Library & Museum and the Musée d'Orsay, rectifies this with Renoir Drawings, offering an unprecedented look at the artist's creative process through nearly one hundred drawings, pastels, watercolors and prints spanning five decades of his career. M.S. Rau is thrilled to have our extraordinary Renoir drawing, Après le bain (1898), featured in this exhibition, on view now at the Musée d'Orsay until July 2026.
| Après le bain by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (center), prominently displayed in Renoir Drawings at Musée d’Orsay. M.S. Rau. |
Groundbreaking Exhibition
| Study for The Great Bathers by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. ca. 1886-1887 and 1908. The Morgan Library. Source. |
This ambitious exhibition is the first major exploration of Renoir's works on paper in a century. The show illuminates how drawing remained central to Renoir's artistic practice even as his interests evolved from academic studies to Impressionist spontaneity to classical revival.
The presentation draws inspiration from a major gift to the Morgan Library & Museum, a large-scale preparatory sketch for The Great Bathers, one of Renoir’s most significant paintings, and traces the artist’s engagement with paper as a medium for testing ideas, planning compositions and interpreting both landscape and the human figure.
The exhibition explores the evolution of Renoir’s drawings throughout his career. It begins with his academic studies as a student at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he trained under Charles Gleyre alongside Claude Monet and other future Impressionists. These works reveal the strong classical foundation that would continuously distinguish Renoir from his peers.
His Impressionist period is of course on full display, featuring spontaneous depictions of contemporary urban and rural life that capture the immediacy the movement championed. These masterpieces on paper demonstrate how Renoir used this medium to work out ideas quickly, experimenting with composition and capturing fleeting effects of light before committing them to canvas.
From New Orleans to New York to Paris
| Après le bain by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. M.S. Rau. |
| Installation view of Renoir Drawings at Musée d’Orsay, Après le bain through the window (center). |
M.S. Rau is honored to have Renoir's Après le bain (1898) selected for this historic exhibition. Executed in sanguine and white chalk, this monumental portrait presents a nude figure absorbed in the intimate act of drying herself after bathing.
The size of this drawing—almost 4 feet high and 3 feet wide—is truly exceptional in Renoir's oeuvre and is among the largest he ever created in red chalk. Musée d'Orsay's display highlights the drawing's significance beautifully with a custom window, allowing viewers a glimpse of the masterpiece through the museum's walls.
| Gabrielle aux grenades by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Painted 1915. M.S. Rau (Sold). |
The model for Après le bain is almost certainly Gabrielle Renard, cousin to Renoir's wife, Aline Charigot, and nanny to their children. Gabrielle came to work for the family in Montmartre at age sixteen and quickly became one of the artist's favorite subjects, appearing in several important works. When severe rheumatoid arthritis eventually left him unable to walk and barely able to grasp a paintbrush, it was Gabrielle who assisted by positioning the brush between his stiffened fingers, enabling him to continue working.
Why You Should Make the Trip
| Musée d’Orsay, Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 75007 Paris. 2023. Source. |
Whether you are a devoted connoisseur of Impressionism or simply appreciate masterful draftsmanship, Renoir Drawings offers a fresh perspective on an artist whose paintings have become so familiar that we sometimes forget to see them anew. This exhibition reminds us that behind every luminous canvas lies hours of careful study, experimentation and refinement captured in drawings that are masterworks in their own right.
Renoir Drawings runs March 17 through July 5, 2026, at Musée d’Orsay, located at Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 75007 Paris, France.
