By using clean outlines and minimal shading, Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts his figure simply and clearly. The woman is similar to classical sculpture of ancient Greece, with the drapery over her lap and averted eyes; however, she is much larger than the ancient ideal, or the contemporary ideal for that matter. The lack of specificity of the image—a nondescript landscape, a nude figure—contrasts with the solidity and full-bodied flesh of a real woman.

Excerpt from

Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2008.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  Read a biography of Renoir.