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A pale, nearly nude woman with dark hair sits on a mossy rock, holding an archer's bow, with a dead deer at her feet in this vertical painting. Her body is angled to our left and she looks down toward the animal with dark eyes. Her hair is pulled up, and her pale pink lips are closed. She is covered only by a light, celery-green cloth and rose-pink ribbon across her hips. She has full, round breasts and curving belly, hips, and thighs. The deer’s legs face the woman as it lies on the ground, but its head is pulled back at a dramatic angle into the lower left corner, seeping blood from the mouth and from a slash across its neck. A quiver of arrows lies to the woman’s right, farther from us, on the moss-covered rock on which she is seated. More boulders behind her create the impression of hills, nearly filling the composition. Trees grow up against a corner of pale blue sky above.

Diana, 1867

Auguste Renoir

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 90

Renoir had his girlfriend Lise Tréhot pose as the ancient Roman goddess Diana. He chose a mythological subject and painted it at grand scale in hopes of getting this picture into the largest art show of the time, the Salon. But the jury rejected it. The realism of the sitter’s body and the bloody head of the dead deer at her feet must have been too much for them. Seven years later, Renoir would participate in the first impressionist exhibition. Although he continued submitting to the Salon, he generally exhibited in alternative spaces and dealer galleries.

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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. However, the painting was rejected by the Salon in 1867, its portrayal perhaps too close to that of a real, flesh–and–blood woman than to a classical mythological heroine.

The picture's style shows the influence of realist painter Gustave Courbet in the particular attention given to the blood coming from the animal's mouth and the mossy surfaces of the rocks. This is one of the few times Renoir used a palette knife to apply his pigments—a favorite technique of Courbet. However, in the greens of the animal skin and the red accent we see Renoir's own preference for the bright, luminous colors that would distinguish his impressionist pictures only a few years later.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 199.5 x 129.5 cm (78 9/16 x 51 in.)

framed: 222.6 x 159.1 cm (87 5/8 x 62 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.205

Artists / Makers

Auguste Renoir (artist) French, 1841 - 1919

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Detail Information

Inscription

lower right: A. RENOIR 1867

Provenance

Dr. Georges Viau [1855-1939], Paris; (his sale, Paris, 21 March 1907, no. 68); purchased by (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris) for an unknown buyer. Alexandre Berthier [1883-1918], 4th Prince de Wagram, Paris; sold probably by his heirs though (Canadeesche Hypothek Bank) through (Étienne Bignou, Paris) to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London); on joint account with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris) and (Marcel Kapferer);[1] sold 25 November 1929 to (Etienne Bignou, Paris and New York);[2] sold 16 January 1933 to to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] Reid & Lefèvre Paintings Sold, sheet no. 198, #2/29 B1394 gives acquisition source and partial share information (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 283). An annotated photograph of the painting is included in the Bignou photo albums at the documentation center of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (copy NGA curatorial files).

[2] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Painting Stockbook no. 5, London 1928-1939, and Stockbook no. 8, New York, no. A614; copies in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bernheim-Jeune
Bignou, Etienne
Canadeesche Hypothek Bank
Dale, Chester
Kapferer, Marcel
Knoedler & Company, M.
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex
Viau, Georges, Dr.
Wagram, Alexandre Berthier, 4th Prince de

Exhibition History

1900: Exposition A. Renoir, Galeries Bernheim Jeune et Fils, Paris, 1900, no. 40 as Diane chasseresse.

1913: Renoir, Bernheim-Jeune et Fils, Paris, 1913, no. 1.

1929: The Classical Period of Renoir, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, November 1929, no. X.

1933: A Century of Progress, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 341.

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, Washington, National Gallery of Art, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2016: Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and The Birth of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpelier; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016-2017, no. 125 (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1911: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Auguste Renoir. Munich, 1911:8-9, repro. p. 11.

1912: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Renoir. Paris, 1912: p. 7 repro.

1918: Vollard, Ambroise. Tableaux, Pastels & Dessins de Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Paris, 1918: p3, repro. 372.

1920: André, Albert. "Renoir." Kunst und Künstler. Berlin, 1920: repro. p. 474.

1924: Duret, Théodore. Renoir. Paris, 1924: repro. plate 2.

1925: Coquiot, Gustave. Renoir. Paris, 1925: 223.

1925: Vollard, Ambroise. Renoir: An intimate Record. New York, 1925: 38.

1929: "A Renoir Exhibition." The Burlington Magazine 55, no. 320 (November 1929):252, repro.

1929: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Renoir. Leipzig, 1929: 20-22, repro. p. 17, no. 3.

1933: "Chicago Show to Present French Modern Classics." Art News XXXI, no. 34 (May 20, 1933):repro. p. 1.

1935: Barnes, Albert C. and Violette de Mazia. The Art of Renoir. New York, 1935: no. 4.

1935: Bertram, Anthony. August Renoir. London, 1935: repro. plate I.

1937: Duret, Théodore. Renoir. New York, 1937: repro. 32

1937: McBride, Henry. "The Renoirs in America: In Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum's Exhibition," Art News 35, no. 31 (1 May 1937):60, repro.

1938: Florisoone, Michel. Renior. Paris, 1938: 16.

1940: Wilenski, R.H. Modern French Painters. New York, 1940:18-19.

1941: Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 12, repro. XXII

1941: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Now the Great French 19th Century in the National Gallery." Art News 40, no. 17 (December 15-31, 1941):repro. p. 18

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 61, repro.

1944: Drucker, Michel. Renoir. Paris, 1944:17, 29, 111.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 61, repro.

1946: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1946: repro. 146.

1949: Chamson, André. Renoir. Lausanne, 1949:9, repro. pl. 3

1950: A Loan Exhibition of Renoir for the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. Exh. cat. Wildenstein, New York, 1950: 24.

1950: Pach, Walter. Pierre Auguste Renoir. New York, 1950: 36, repro.

1952: Fox, Milton S. Renoir. New York, 1952: 9, repro.

1953: Berr de Turique, Marcelle. Renoir. Paris, c. 1953: 5.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 71, repro.

1954: Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Geneva, 1954: 18, repro.

1961: Fosca, François. Renoir, His Life and Work. London, 1961: repro. 11.

1961: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. 3rd rev. ed., New York, 1961:repro. p. 166.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 324, repro.

1964: Perruchot, Henri. La vie de Renoir. Paris, 1964:47

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 107, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.

1967: Pool, Phoebe. Impressionism. London, 1967: repro. p. 50

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 99, repro.

1971: Daulte, Francois. Auguste Renoir, catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint. Vol.I. Figures 1860-1890. Lausanne, 1971: 26, 34, no. 30

1972: Fezzi, Elda. L'opera completa di Renoir nel period impressionista. Milan, 1972: no. 20.

1973: Champa, Kermit S. Studies in Early Impressionism. New Haven and London, 1973: 43, 44-49, 83, repro.

1973: Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York, 1973:1965, repro. 166.

1973: White, Barbara Ehrlich. "The Bathers of 1887 and Renoir's Anti-Impressionism," Art Bulletin 55, no. 1 (March 1973): 111

1974: Fouchet, Max-Pol. Les Nus de Renoir. Paris and Lausanne, 1974:67, repro. 66.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 294, repro.

1976: Bellony-Rewald, Alice. The Lost World of the Impressionists. Boston, 1976: 44.

1980: Thomas, David. Renoir. London, 1980:6

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 469, no. 684, color repro.

1985: Arts Council of Great Britain. Renoir. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery , London, Galleries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985-1986:180, repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 339, repro.

1985: Rouart, Denis. Renoir. Rev. ed., New York, 1985: 12, repro. 13.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 8, color repro.

1993: Bajou, Valérie. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870. Aix-en-Provence, 1993:101-102, repro. 103

1996: Roos, Jane Mayo. Early Impressionism and the French State (1866-1874). Cambridge, 1996: 84, fig. 63.

1996: Sagner-Düchting, Karin. Renoir: Paris and the Belle Epoque. Munich, 1996:22, repro. 23.

1997: Druick, Douglas W. Renoir, Chicago, 1997, p. 19, no. 7, repro.

1997: Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism, 1997, no. 214, repro.

1998: Pitman, Dianne W. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998: 58-60, repro. no. 29.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 378-379, no. 312, color repro.

2007: Dauberville, Guy-Patrice, and Michel Dauberville. Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins et aquarelles. 5 vols. Paris, 2007: 1:no. 578, repro.

2022: Galvez, Paul. Courbet’s Landscapes: The Origins of Modern Painting. New Haven, 2022: 134, 135-137, color fig. 58, 141.