Description
A seated nude woman, her auburn hair pinned up, bends forward to dry her foot with a white cloth, her rounded back and full figure turned toward the viewer. She sits on rumpled white drapery over a wooden bench, with a swath of orange-red fabric heaped behind her and a curtain patterned with large orange flowers falling at the left, against a deep green wall.
Renoir builds the flesh in warm, luminous tones, pearly whites and soft pinks, with the surrounding fabrics painted in loose, richer strokes of orange and white that set off the smooth, rounded forms of the body. It is a quiet, intimate bathing scene, the model absorbed in the simple act of drying herself.
Held today at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, this painting is available as a hand-painted oil reproduction or an archival canvas print, made to order in sizes that keep the original’s proportions, close to a 118 x 89.5 cm ratio, so the composition reads as Renoir intended.



