About This Artwork

Pierre Auguste Renoir
French, 1841-1919

Splashing Figure (Study for "The Great Bathers"), 1884/85

Red, white, and black chalk and black Conté crayon, with brush and red and white chalk wash on tan tracing paper, laid down on canvas
989 x 635 mm
Bequest of Kate L. Brewster, 1949.514

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Chicago, The Arts Club, "A Loan Exhibition of Some Modern Paintings," December 21, 1926-January 21, 1927, n.p., cat. 13.

Chicago, Home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brewster, "Special View for the benefit of Chicago Public School Art Society of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Brewster," January 20–22, 1933, cat. 24.

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, "De David a Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections americaines," 1955, cat. 87 (ill.).

New York, Wildenstein and Company, "Master Drawings from the Art Institute of Chicago," October 17-November 30, 1963, n.p., cat. 113.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 68 (ill.).

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 128-129, cat. 61 (ill.).

Tokyo, Museum of Art, "Auguste Renoir," September 22-November 6, 1979; traveled to the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, November 11-December 9, 1979.

Publication History

Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir (Paris, 1912), p. 193 (ill.).

Michel Drucker, Renoir (Paris, 1944), p. 207, no. 88, pl. 4, no. 2.

John Rewald, Renoir: Drawings (New York, 1946), p. 20, no. 41 (ill.).

Graham Reynolds, Nineteenth-Century Drawings, 1850-1900 (London, 1949).

François Daulte, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Water-colours, Pastels, and Drawings in Colour, trans. by Robert Allen (London, 1959). no. 7 (ill.).

Maurice and Arlette Sérullaz, L'ottocento francese (Milan, 1970), pp. 73 (ill.) and 91.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (London, 1970), pp. 159-160 (ill.).

Anthea Callen, Renoir (London, 1978), no. 71 (ill.),

Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the 19th Century 2 (Chicago, 1979), p. 91, no 5D9.

Richard Brettell, French Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 84, 85, 119 (ill.).

Mosaic: Survey of the Art Institute of Chicago (May-June 1987), p. 7 (ill.).

Christopher Riopelle. "Renoir: The Great Bathers," Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 86 (Fall 1990), pp. 27-28, fig. 29.

Barbara Ehrlich White, Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries, and Artistic Exchanges (New York, 1996), p. 228 (ill.).

Christopher Lloyd, "Impressionism: Pastels, Watercolors, Drawings", (Milwaukee, 2011) pp 50-51, fig. 17.

Ownership History

Adrien Hébrard, Paris [Joachim 1979]. Sold by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, to Walter S. Brewster (1872-1954), March 19, 1926 [invoice]; given to the Art Institute, 1949.