Diana by Pierre-Auguste Renoir was created in 1867. The painting is in National Gallery of Art Washington D.C. The size of the work is 197 x 132 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
Renoir wrote that he had produced this painting as a study of a nude, the sort of exercise that was a mainstay of the academic tradition of painting from a posed model in the studio. Notice, for example, that the woman’s foot rests on an elevated perch, and that a prop relieves the strain of her raised arms. Such devices were necessary for a model to maintain her pose. This model, though, is Lise Tréhot, the artist’s mistress, and in the end, as Renoir admitted, “the picture was considered pretty improper.” He said he added the bow, the dead animal, and the deerskin to transform Lise into Diana, the ancient goddess of the hunt, whose voluptuous nudity would be more acceptable to a Salon jury than that of a real woman… (read more in National Gallery of Art Washington)
About the Artist: French artist and Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France. Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he frequently tired of the subject matter and sought refuge in the galleries of the Louvre. The owner of the factory recognized his apprentice’s talent and communicated this to Renoir’s family. Following this, Renoir started taking lessons to prepare for entry into Ecole des Beaux Arts… read more
You can order this work as an art print on canvas from canvastar.com
