This week, our assignment was to go back to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and find a piece to do ten sketches on. Since I couldn't make it to the PMA last week, I made sure I found time to go this week. My Tuesday 3D class was canceled because of the 3D Olympics so Tuesday was wide open for me. I took a day trip by myself to the PMA which at first I was a little worried about because I wasn't sure how to get there via subway. But it was a nice afternoon, and though a lot of walking was required from City Hall to the PMA, it was all worth it.
Once I got there, I ventured into the European galleries, that held many works by Mone and Renoir in particular. One piece jumped out at me though, especially, mainly because of its size and color choice. The piece is called "The Large Bathers" (1884-1887). The sculptural rendering of the figures against a sparkling background and the careful application of dry paint reflect the tradition of seventeenth and eighteenth century French painting. Renoir labored over this work for three years, making numerous preparatory drawings for individual figures and at least two full-scale multifigure drawings. Faced with criticism of his new style after completing The Large Bathers, an exhausted Renoir never again devoted such painstaking effort to a single work.
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