Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'A Nymph by a Stream', 1869-70

A Nymph by a Stream

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This is one of the first nudes that Renoir painted. He took a traditional artistic approach, depicting the woman in a natural setting, reclining by a stream as though she were a naiad (water nymph) from the world of Greek mythology. She appears to be lying on a grassy, flower-flecked bank beside the stream, leaning with her elbow in the brook and allowing the water to flow between her fingers, but Renoir’s brushstrokes are so fluid that we can’t be entirely sure where the bank ends and the water begins.

This painting is also – in some senses – a portrait. Rather than idealising the nymph’s features in the way that more academic contemporary painters, such as Ingres, would have done, Renoir has made her recognisable. She is Lise Tréhot, the artist’s lover and the female model for almost all of his work during the early stages of his career.

In-depth

This is one of the first nudes that Renoir painted. He took a traditional artistic approach, depicting her in a natural setting, reclining by a stream as though she were a naiad (water nymph) from the world of Greek mythology. Such nymphs or spirits were associated with the forces of nature itself. Streams and especially springs were considered a symbolic source of life, and Renoir must have been aware that the theme had been recently explored by other prominent artists of the time, including Ingres and Courbet.

The figure appears to be lying on a grassy flower-flecked bank beside the stream, leaning with her elbow in the brook and allowing the water to flow between her fingers. But Renoir’s brushstrokes are so fluid that we can’t be entirely sure where the bank ends and the water begins. The title, which may be original, can also be translated as ‘Nymph at the Spring’. So perhaps she is actually lying in the water and not beside it, and the little white flowers are those of, say, watercress rather than a riverside meadow. The way that Renoir has blurred the outline of the figure and the way her garlanded hair seems to flow into the background contributes to this sense that she is merging into her surroundings. Nevertheless, Renoir draws a strong contrast between the deep shadowy greens of the vegetation and water and the glowing white flesh of the woman, which is modelled with subtle shades of pink and grey.

This painting is also – in some senses – a portrait. Rather than idealising the nymph’s features in the way that more academic contemporary painters such as Ingres would have done, Renoir has made her recognisable. She is Lise Tréhot, the artist’s lover and the female model for almost all of his work during the early stages of his career between 1866 and 1872, after which they seem to have broken off all contact with each other. She appeared in more than 20 paintings. As she gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne, in July 1870, she may have been pregnant when this picture was made. Jeanne was given up for adoption and Renoir never publicly acknowledged that he was the father, though since he secretly supported Jeanne financially all her life, it seems safe to assume that he was.

Lise also posed for what is presumed to be a companion piece to this painting, Woman of Algiers (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), in which she is depicted in a similar pose but clothed in a rich oriental (near-Eastern) costume as though she is in a harem. The two paintings are almost exactly the same size with the position of the figure reversed, which suggests that they were made to hang next to each.

The concept of painting the same model twice – dressed in one picture and undressed in the other, and with all the frisson that implied – was not a new one. Traditional artistic training required the study of nudes in order to understand how to depict a fully dressed figure. And the idea of a double portrait of this kind had been most famously expressed by Goya in his two portraits of about 1800 depicting a clothed and naked maja (a term which is hard to translate but means a feisty working class young woman). She too is shown full-frontal, and, like Renoir’s nymph, she holds the eye of the viewer with a direct gaze.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Nymph by a Stream
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Artist dates: 1841 - 1919
Date made: 1869-70
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 66.7 × 122.9 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1951
Inventory number: NG5982
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Acquired from Renoir by Prosper Gamy, and sold by him in 1917 to Paul Rosenberg. From the Freund‐Deschamps Collection. G. U(nion) Sale, Paris, 30 May, 1927 (lot 88), reproduced in the catalogue, bought by Gérard Frères. Exhibited at the National Gallery, Nineteenth Century French Paintings, 1942 (No. 79), lent by Sir Victor Schuster. Renoir Exhibition at Lefevre’s, London, 1948 (No. 1). Purchased from the Lefevre Gallery, 1951.

Additional information

This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2012

Renoir, Between Bohemia and Bourgeoisie: The Early Years

Kunstmuseum Basel

1 April 2012 - 12 August 2012
2013

Normandie Impressionniste

Musée des Beaux-Arts (Caen)

27 April 2013 - 29 September 2013
2016

Renoir. Intimacy

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

18 October 2016 - 22 January 2017

Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa / Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao

7 February 2017 - 15 May 2017
2019

Renoir: The Body, The Senses

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

8 June 2019 - 22 September 2019

Kimbell Art Museum

27 October 2019 - 26 January 2020

Bibliography

1923

H. de Régnier, Renoir, peintre de nu, Paris 1923
1948

'Renoir at Lefevres', The Burlington Magazine, 1948
1955

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
1957

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
1959

D. Cooper, 'Renoir, Lise and the Le Coeur Family: A Study of Renoir's Early Development. I, Lise', The Burlington Magazine, CI/674, 1959, pp. 163-71
1963

C. Hayes and F. Guérard, Renoir, Paris 1963
1970

Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
1971

F. Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, I: Figures 1860-1890, Lausanne 1971
1978

A. Callen, Renoir, London 1978
1982

W. Gaunt, Renoir, Oxford 1982
1985

T. Garb, 'Renoir and the Natural Woman', Oxford Art Journal, VIII/2, 1985, pp. 6-7
1988

B.E. White, Renoir: His Life, Art and Letters, New York 1988
1994

J. House, Renoir: Master Impressionist (exh. cat. Queensland Art Gallery, 30 July - 11 September 1994; National Gallery of Victoria, 18 September - 30 October 1994), Sydney 1994
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 10 works

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'A Nymph by a Stream', 1869-70

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Questions: 1933–1945

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir