Blonde Bather

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

c. 1881–1882

Red chalk on wove tissue paper mounted on board

Dallas Museum of Art

This is among the most important surviving drawings by Renoir. It relates, without question, to the famous painting "Blonde Bather" (The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts) of 1881. Renoir is said to have painted this work in Naples while on his first trip to Italy, where he studied the art of the ancient world and the Renaissance, as his fellow Frenchmen had done since the late 16th century. Renoir's trip fostered direct connections between his art and the classical tradition. While in Italy, Renoir studied Raphael, whom he admired but, as a true Frenchman, considered inferior to Ingres. Renoir had m