Pierre Auguste RENOIR (1841-1919), Women in the Bath (1887)

color heliogravure, heavyweight velin paper, 31 x 23 cm (plate imprint), framed in passe - partout 47 x 37 cm, numbered by hand in pencil 3/300, signed from plate under composition "Renoir", dry publisher's stamp l. d.: letter K surrounded by the words "EDITION LIMITED CERTIFIED ARTS USA EUROPE SINCE 1998". Attached is the original publisher's certificate issued and signed by Arte K confirming that the limited edition numbering is correct.
The work was created in 1887 and was inspired by the work of another French painter, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Renoir began painting the great bathers around 1885, when he created a series of preparatory drawings for each figure. However, the painting was met with criticism due to the sculptural smoothness of the image. Because of the misunderstanding the painting received, Renoir, exhausted and discouraged by the effort he put into creating the Great Bathers, reportedly stated that he would never again devote such a long time to a single work.
"Women in Bath" by Auguste Renoir is considered the painter's departure from the impressionism and naturalism that characterized his older work. The artist also broke with plein air painting at the time. Historians attribute the change in Renoir's art direction to the fact that the painter may have been influenced by Pompeian frescoes and Raphael.