id: 118159 accession number: 1939.269 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.269 updated: Bathers Playing with a Crab, c. 1897. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919). Oil on fabric; framed: 75.5 x 85.5 x 10 cm (29 3/4 x 33 11/16 x 3 15/16 in.); unframed: 54.6 x 65.7 cm (21 1/2 x 25 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1939.269 title: Bathers Playing with a Crab title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1897 creation date earliest: 1892 creation date latest: 1902 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) - artist Renoir's parents, a tailor and a dressmaker, moved their family to Paris in 1844. At age thirteen Renoir apprenticed with the porcelain decorators Levy Frères & Cie. He earned money by painting fans, blinds, and murals for cafés. In 1860 he registered to copy Old Master paintings in the Louvre and, the following year, entered the studio of Charles Gleyre (1806-1874), where he met Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), Monet (q.v.), and Sisley (q.v.). In 1862 he was also accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts. With his friends from Gleyre's studio, he began working en plein air and, during a visit to the forest of Fontainebleau, was introduced to Diaz de la Peña (q.v.). After a failed attempt in 1863, Renoir's first painting was accepted at the Salon of 1864, the same year he painted Cleveland's portrait of Romaine Lacaux. More typical of this early period, however, is the painting Diana the Huntress (1867, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which reveals Courbet's (q.v.) influence. Around 1867 Renoir shared a studio with Bazille and Monet, the latter becoming an important influence on his art. Renoir and Monet's comparable impressionist style during this period is evident in two paintings each made at La grenouillère (all four titled La grenouillère, 1869: Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and Pushkin Museum, Moscow [Renoir]; National Gallery, London, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [Monet]),1 a bathing establishment on the Seine. After Renoir's military service during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Monet introduced him to the dealer Durand-Ruel, who began purchasing his works. Renoir's submissions to the Salon were regularly refused, which encouraged him to participate in the first impressionist exhibition in 1874 and the 1875 auction at Hôtel Drouot, where his works were ridiculed by the critics. At the third impressionist exhibition in 1877, he showed Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (1876, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), in which he addressed a subject of modern life, one of his most characteristic impressionist paintings on a grand scale, with a rich pattern of light and shadow. In 1878 he returned to the Salon and became quite successful, establishing his reputation as a portraitist (1878, Mme Charpentier and her Children, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). He continued to use this official venue for the next several years, declining to exhibit with the impressionists. This decision was partly generated by the fact that his newfound clientele would be more appreciative of his participating in the Salon. He was supported by his patrons, particularly the Charpentiers, owners of a publishing house, whose journal La vie moderne furthered Renoir's reputation. After a trip to North Africa and Italy in 1881, he joined Cézanne at L'Estaque. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Renoir traveled extensively through Brittany, Normandy, Provence, and Spain. In the mid-1880s he began to experiment with more linear contours, the application of thinner paint layers, and smoother brush strokes. This so-called Ingresque period, which had a very mixed reception, lasted for about six years. He then reflected upon the achievements of the Old Masters and favored a more fluid style, after which he returned to using broader brush strokes and more vibrant colors. In 1886 he was given a one-man show by Durand-Ruel. By 1900 Renoir was an established artist: he became Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1900 and four years later was honored at the Salon d'Automne with a gallery devoted to his works. Beginning in 1912 he suffered from rheumatism and began using a wheelchair, yet he continued to work until the end of his life. He now often stayed in southern France, where he owned property in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Renoir regularly exhibited his works at the Durand-Ruel and Bernheim-Jeune galleries in Paris, as well as elsewhere in Europe and in the United States. --- measurements: Framed: 75.5 x 85.5 x 10 cm (29 3/4 x 33 11/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 54.6 x 65.7 cm (21 1/2 x 25 7/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: Renoir translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00 The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 12, 1936). title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00 The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). title: French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections opening date: 1942-01-06T05:00:00 French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942). title: 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans opening date: 1943-06-22T04:00:00 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). title: Art: The International Language opening date: 1956-10-02T04:00:00 Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956). title: The Venetian Tradition opening date: 1956-11-08T05:00:00 The Venetian Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957). title: Renoir opening date: 1996-01-20T00:00:00 Renoir. Künsthalle Tubingen (organizer) (January 20-May 26, 1996). title: Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting opening date: 2002-06-29T00:00:00 Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting. San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (organizer) (June 29-September 15, 2002); El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX (November 3, 2002-February 16, 2003). title: Renoir in the 20th Century opening date: 2009-09-23T00:00:00 Renoir in the 20th Century. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (September 23, 2009-January 4, 2010); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (February 14-May 9, 2010); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (June 12-September 5, 2010). title: A Summer at the Water's Edge: Leisure Activities and Impressionism opening date: 2013-04-27T00:00:00 A Summer at the Water's Edge: Leisure Activities and Impressionism. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France (April 27-September 29, 2013). title: Renoir: Intimacy opening date: 2016-10-18T00:00:00 Renoir: Intimacy. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (October 18, 2016-January 22, 2017); Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, 48011 Bilbao, Spain (February 7-May 15, 2017). title: Renoir: The Body, The Senses opening date: 2019-06-08T04:00:00 Renoir: The Body, The Senses. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 8-September 22, 2019); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (October 27, 2019-January 26, 2020). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA. French Paintings of the Later XIX Century (1921), no cat., lent by Ralph Coe.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute; cma. Exhibition of Paintings: Edouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot (1924-25), no. 38, lent by R. M. Coe; repr. opp. title page (no cat. for Cleveland showing).
CMA. French Art since 1800 (1929), in CMA Bulletin 16 (1929): 162.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum. Paintings by Manet and Renoir (1933), in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 29 (December 1933): 19, Baigneuses, 1897, Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland.
CMA. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936), no. 307, pl. 66.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings (1937), 9, no. 56 (repr.).
New York, Museum of Modern Art. Art in Our Time (1939), no. 52 (repr.).
Washington, D.C., Phillips Memorial Gallery. Emotional Design in Painting (1940), no. 2.
New York, World's Fair. Masterpieces of Art (1940), no. 331, as dated 1897.
New York, Duveen Galleries. Centennial Loan Exhibition 1841-1941: Renoir (1941), 19, no. 64, pl. 64, as dated 1892.
New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co. Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Delacroix and Renoir (1948), 73 (repr.), no. 24.
Omaha, Joslyn Memorial Art Museum. Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition-The Beginnings of Modern Painting: France 1800-1900 (1951), 5.
Fort Wayne (Ind.) Art School and Museum. Picture of the Month (May 1953), no cat.
CMA. The Venetian Tradition (1956), no. 37 (as dated 1897), pl. 56.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Past Rediscovered: French Painting 1800-1900 (1969), no. 71 (repr.).
Kunsthalle Tübingen. Renoir (1996), no. 86 (repr.).
San Diego Museum of Art (6/29/2002 - 9/15/2002) and El Paso Museum of Art (11/3/2002-2/16/2003), "Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting"
RMN (organizer); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (9/23/2009-1/4/2010), LACMA (2/14/2010-5/9/2010), and Philadelphia Museum of Art (6/12/2010-9/5/2010): "Pierre-Auguste Renoir"
RMN (organizer); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France (4/27/2013 - 9/23/2013): "A Summer at the Water's Edge: Leisure Activities and Impressionism"
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (10/18/2016 – 1/22/2017) and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain (2/7/2017 – 5/15/2017): "Renoir: Intimacy" --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: After viewing Renaissance paintings on a trip to Italy in 1881, Renoir attempted to bring greater order and stability to Impressionism by merging flickering light effects with solid forms. He conveyed this new ambition in a series of paintings of nude bathers, a subject that preoccupied him from 1883 until his death in 1919. Avant-garde artists of the 20th century admired his ability to blend modernist and classicizing tendencies. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. page number: Reproduced: p. 35 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAPaintings1945/page/n43 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 507 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n94 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 176 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n200 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 176 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n200 Fezzi, Elda. L'opera completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista, 1869-1883. Milano: Rizzoli, 1972. page number: Reproduced: p. 120, fig. 690 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 218 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n238 Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 552-555, Vol. II, no. 186 url: Solana, Guillermo. Renoir: Intimacy. Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016. page number: Reproduced: p. 167, cat. no. 68 url: Bell, Esther. "Renoir and the Rococo Nude." In Renoir: The Body, the Senses. Esther Bell and George T. M. Shackelford, eds., 51-67.
Williamstown, Massachusetts: Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2019. page number: Mentioned: P. 59; Reproduced: P. 62, fig. 52; cat. no. 45 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1939.269/1939.269_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1939.269/1939.269_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1939.269/1939.269_full.tif