Baigneuses à Guernsey by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
1841-1919 | French

Baigneuses à Guernsey

Signed "Renoir" (lower right)
Oil on canvas

This luminous canvas belongs to a defining moment in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s career—a brief period in the mid-1880s that yielded some of his most ambitious, vibrant works. Painted in 1885, Baigneuses à Guernsey is one of the rare examples from this vivid era that remains in private hands. Its brilliance links it closely to the artist’s celebrated achievements of the decade, revealing Renoir's unmatched mastery of color and the expressive potential of light.

The bather at the center of the composition is pure radiance, with her copper hair and luminous complexion shimmering with hundreds of Renoir's precise brushstrokes. Surrounding her is a symphony of saturated blues, greens and warm golden tones that evoke the brilliance of summers on the Normandy coast. The canvas captures not only the physical setting but also the sensation of the salty air and gleaming brightness, hallmarks of Renoir's finest Impressionist masterpieces.

Depicting the beauty of the Channel Island of Guernsey, this painting reflects Renoir's deep love of this place, where he stayed for five weeks in 1883. Enchanted by its atmosphere, he remarked that “one would believe oneself in a landscape by Watteau rather than in the real world." That sense of wonder and inspiration animates every brushstroke of Baigneuses à Guernsey.

As one of Renoir's most coveted subjects, bathers of this caliber from this important period are exceptionally difficult to find. This work is also distinguished by its provenance, having been directly acquired from Renoir by the influential dealer Ambroise Vollard. Most of Renoir's paintings from this defining moment already reside in major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and the National Gallery, London.

Born in Limoges, France, in 1841, Renoir began his career as an apprentice to a painter of porcelain wares. He later moved to Paris at the age of 21, enrolling at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. It was here, while studying under Charles Gleyre, that Renoir attained a tremendous appreciation for the academic style of painting, a quality that would last throughout his career. This was also the time during which he met Claude Monet and several other classmates, with whom he would later form the Impressionists.

Working closely with Monet, Renoir began experimenting with the portrayal of light and its effect on his canvases. The youngest member of the Impressionist movement, an astute Renoir, recognized how a subject was constantly changing due to the dynamic effects of light on color. Relying heavily upon his academic training that focused upon composition, lines and descriptive details, Renoir distinguished himself among his contemporaries. His intuitive use of color and expansive brushstroke, along with an acute attention to his subject, have placed him among the finest painters in history.

This work is accompanied by its certificate of authenticity from the Wildenstein Institute, and it will be featured in their forthcoming catalogue raisonné.

Painted 1885

Canvas: 18" high x 14 3/4" wide (45.72 x 37.47 cm)
Frame: 28 1/4" high x 25" wide x 3 1/2" deep (71.76 x 63.50 x 8.89 cm)

View the Dossier

Provenance:
Ambroise Vollard, Paris, acquired from the artist (before 1919)
Galerie Bignou, Paris and New York
Gottfried Tanner, Zurich
Galerie Beyeler, Basel (as of 1956)
Private Collection, Paris
Sale, Sotheby & Co., London, March 27, 1957, no. 116, p. 16 (illustrated)
Stapylton, United Kingdom, purchased at above sale
Sale, Palais Galliera, December 8, 1961, no. 71 (illustrated pl. XXXVI)
Gabriel Fodor, Paris
M. & Mme Robert Schmit, Paris (1978)
M. & Mme Schmit, Paris, by descent from above (c. 2009)
Private Collection, Paris
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Literature:
Ambroise Vollard, Tableaux, pastels & dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir, vol. I, 1918, no. 2, p. 1 (illustrated)
Vassily Photiadès, Renoir: Nus, 1960 (illustrated)
François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. I, Figures: 1860-1890, 1971, no. 489 (illustrated)
Ambroise Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Paintings, Pastels and Drawings, rev. ed., 2009, no. 2 (illustrated)
Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles, vol. 2, 1882-1894, 2009, no. 1287 (illustrated)


Exhibited:
Los Angeles, Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Renoir: 1841-1919, Sept 15 - Oct 15, 1943, no. 8
Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Maîtres de l’art moderne, Aug - Oct 1956, no. 8 (illustrated)
Paris, Galerie Schmit, Delacroix à Braque: Maîtres Français XIXe - XXe siècles, April 25 - July 11, 2001, no. 47 (illustrated)