Vintage 1974 Renoir “Two Bathers” Black and White Art Plate

Vintage 1974 black and white art plate affixed to chipboard backing for maximum ease in styling, propping, or framing.

Image: 7.5” x 8”

Renoir, more than any other artist of his epoch, was the painter who expressed on canvas and in his own life a genuine joie de pipre. During his long and vigorous career he painted only what he liked and en-joyed- the happier aspects of nature, healthy and attractive people, flowers, fruits, other good things.

Renoir's production in the field of graphic art was not particularly large. He experimented with etch-ing, drypoint, some soft-ground etching, and lithography (in black-and-white, as well as four in color).

We do not know who taught him to handle the various mediums. Presumably, however, he learned something of the intaglio process from his friend, the painter and engraver Roux-Champion; in 1908 he did a small portrait head of the latter, in soft-ground etching on zinc, and Delteil's catalogue of Renoir's graphic works lists a number of the original plates as being in the possession of Roux-Champion.

When one glances through the catalogues of some fifty-odd prints by Renoir, one finds the familiar subject matter of his paintings (see fig. 23)- portraits of friends and people he admired, several impressions of his children, and a series of bathers and reclining nudes.

This print showing two bathers is rendered with a freedom usually associated with the skillful handing of the pen. The figures and background are drawn in supple, sketchy lines, and here and there a single stroke is used to define a contour. Like many fine works of art which appear to have been effortless, this remains one of the gems avidly desired by amateurs and collectors.