
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00003141Splashing Figure (Study for "The Large Bathers")
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard (1866–1939), Paris [Dauberville and Dauberville, 2009]. Sold by Adrien Hébrard (1833–1914), Paris, to Bernheim-Jeune & Cie., Paris, May 29, 1925 [Dauberville and Dauberville, 2009]; sold to Walter S. Brewster (1872–1954) and Kate L. Brewster (c. 1879–1947), Lake Forest, Ill., Mar. 19, 1926 [invoice]; bequeathed by Kate L. Brewster to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.
Exhibition history
Chicago, Arts Club, "A Loan Exhibition of Some Modern Paintings," Dec. 21, 1926–Jan 21, 1927, 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," Jan. 20–22, 1933, cat. 24. Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, "De David à 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," Oct. 17–Nov. 30, 1963, cat. 113 (ill.). Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," Oct.15, 1976–Jan. 17, 1977, cat. 68 (ill.). Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," Feb. 10–Apr. 10, 1977, cat. 61 (ill.). Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art, "Auguste Renoir," Sept. 22–Nov. 6, 1979, cat. 90 (ill.); Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Nov. 10–Dec. 9, 1979. Art Institute of Chicago, "Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy," June 22–Sept. 29, 2013, no cat. Williamstown, MA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Instititute, "Renoir: The Body, The Senses", June 7 - September 19, 2019. Traveled to Fort Worth TX, The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, October 27, 2019 - January 26, 2020, cat. 27 (ill.), pp. 44, 63, 92, 105, 177, cat. by Esther Bell and George T. M. Shackelford. New York, Morgan Library and Museum, "Renoir's Drawings", October 17, 2025 - February 8, 2026, p. 137, cat. 109, cat. by Colin B. Bailey, et. al.
Publications
Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir (H. Floury, 1912), p. 193 (ill.). C. J. Bulliet, Apples and Madonnas: Emotional Expression in Modern Art (Covici Friede, 1930) (ill.). Michel Drucker, Renoir (Pierre Tisné, 1944), pl. 4, no. 2. John Rewald, Renoir Drawings (H. Bittner, 1946), p. 20, no. 41 (ill.). Graham Reynolds, Nineteenth-Century Drawings (Pleiades, 1949), no. 11 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 49, 2 (Apr. 1955), p. 29. François Daulte, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Water-colours, Pastels, and Drawings in Colour, trans. Robert Allen (Faber & Faber, 1959), no. 7 (ill.). Ira Moskowitz, Great Drawings of All Time, vol. 2 (Shorewood, 1962), no. 802 (ill.) Maurice Sérullaz and Arlette Sérullaz, L’ottocento francese (Fratelli Fabbri, 1970), pp. 73, no. 28 (ill.) and 91. John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (Thames & Hudson, 1970), pp. 159–60 (ill.). Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels, Seeing with the Mind’s Eye: The History, Techniques, and Uses of Visualization (Random House, 1975) (ill.). Anthea Callen, Renoir (Oresko, 1978), p. 88, no. 71 (ill.). Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2 (University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 91, no. 5D9. Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago, 1987), pp. 84–85, 119 (ill.). Horst Keller, Auguste Renoir (Bruckmann München, 1987), p. 127, no. 102 (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. Anne Distel, Renoir: A Sensuous Vision (Thames & Hudson, 1995), p. 95 (ill.). Barbara Ehrlich White, Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries, and Artistic Exchanges (Knopf, 1996), p. 228 (ill.). Douglas W. Druick, Renoir, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1997) pp. 61, 64, 98, no. 17 (ill.), 111. Susan Rayfield, First Impressions: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Abrams, 1998), p. 69 (ill.) Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins, et aquarelles, vol. 2, 1882–1894 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2009), p. 515, no. 1517 (ill.). Christopher Lloyd, Impressionism: Pastels, Watercolors, Drawings, exh. cat. (Milwaukee Art Museum, 2011), pp. 50–51, fig. 17. “Cat. 19: Splashing Figure (Study for “The Large Bathers”),” in Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Pierre Auguste Renoir / French, 1841-1919
- Date
- 1884/85
- Medium
- Red, white, and black chalk, with stumping, and black Conté crayon on tan wove (tracing) paper, laid down on canvas
- Dimensions
- 98.9 × 63.5 cm (38 15/16 × 25 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- chalk
- Place
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Kate L. Brewster
- Accession no.
- 1949.514
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