by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Renoir sets a group of bathers among trees around a narrow pool. A woman reclines across the foreground, two figures lean towards one another on the left, and two more gather at the water’s centre. A woman at the right lifts her hands to her hair. The close spacing and varied poses make the scene look lively, yet its arrangement is carefully balanced. This is Bathers in the Forest (Baigneuses dans la forêt), painted around 1897 and held by the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, as BF901. An Art Institute of Chicago catalogue studies its relationship to a large graphite drawing. Barnes collection record [1]; Art Institute catalogue, cat. 23. [2]
At a glance
- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir
- TitleBathers in the Forest (Baigneuses dans la forêt)
- DateAbout 1897
- MediumOil on canvas
- SizeAbout 73.7 × 99.7 cm
- CollectionBarnes Foundation, BF901
- Related drawingArt Institute of Chicago, 2013.1010, dated 1895/97
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The trees at each side, with branches crossing overhead, give the scene a loose frame. Within it, the bathers form smaller groups. The reclining figure at the bottom extends across much of the width. Higher up, two figures at centre face left, towards a companion who appears to shield herself. The cluster leads our eye through the shallows, while the seated woman at right brings it back to the foreground. The picture's forest setting is dense, but the open water keeps the middle legible. Art Institute curatorial entry. [2]
Renoir uses the bathers' backs and outstretched limbs to connect these groups. The figure in the near left corner faces into the scene. The woman at right turns largely away from us, her raised arms echoing the branches above. Between them, a small stretch of dark water separates the central figures from those on the bank. Follow these repeated curves and the gathering becomes easier to read than a first glance at the many bodies and foliage might suggest.
The setting invites an impression of carefree bathing, but the Art Institute catalogue warns against taking it as a record of one observed outing. The figures occupy a rather improbable shared space. Their gestures create a composition more than a plausible moment in a real forest. That observation does not make the scene lifeless: the painter lets the play at the water's edge animate an arrangement that has been worked out with care. Art Institute catalogue. [2]
Colour and older pictorial models
Colour helps join the figures to their setting. Pale flesh tones stand against a field of greens, blue-violets and warm browns. Orange-red drapery at the lower right pulls attention back towards the front of the canvas. The Art Institute describes the Barnes picture's colour as soft and jewel-like and notes the way touches of colour unify a scene whose human relationships otherwise seem staged. This is a critical reading of the painting, rather than a measured account of its pigments. Art Institute curatorial entry. [2]
The catalogue proposes a possible connection with Titian's Diana and Actaeon. In that picture, two figures recoil and a companion cups a hand above a shoulder; Renoir's related poses reverse the older arrangement. The suggestion is a comparison of composition, not proof that Renoir had this exact canvas in front of him. The Art Institute notes that he may have known it through a print. Looking for such a relationship gives the woodland bathers another context: Renoir's late nineteenth-century scene can be read alongside the historical painting he admired. Art Institute catalogue and comparison. [2]
That historical echo also affects the viewer's position. In Titian's subject, Actaeon intrudes upon Diana and her companions. Here the bathers remain at a distance, with a reclining figure and intervening space between them and us. The Art Institute's curator interprets that separation as part of the painting's treatment of looking. It is a useful question to carry back to the image: who appears aware of being seen, and which figure seems absorbed in the activity around the water? Art Institute curatorial interpretation. [2]
The closely related Chicago drawing
The Art Institute owns a broad graphite sheet catalogued Study for “Bathers in the Forest”, 2013.1010, dated 1895/97. The drawing lays out nearly the same figures. An overlay published in its technical report shows a striking match not only in the overall grouping but in smaller details of faces, limbs and toes. There is a shift at the far right. The report also records wear and pinholes, signs that the sheet was handled as a working drawing. Art Institute catalogue and technical report. [2]
Its traditional “study for” title sounds like an answer to the question of which came first. The museum is more cautious. Because the paper composition is so close to the Barnes painting and shows little visible revision, the curator suggests that the drawing may have recorded or traced an already settled composition, perhaps for later reuse. It is not securely established as Renoir's first plan for the canvas. The drawing's function matters here: it shows an artist who could revisit, retain or transfer a figural arrangement rather than necessarily invent every element afresh on the final canvas. Art Institute curatorial entry. [2]
The technical report sharpens that caution. Infrared imaging of the painting found no graphite that would confirm transfer from this sheet, and it revealed early painted features that appear in neither the drawing nor the finished canvas. The authors therefore favour a drawing made after the composition was settled, perhaps to document it, while leaving its exact function open. This is evidence about sequence, not proof of a single method Renoir always used. Art Institute technical report. [2]
Comparing the two works also reveals what colour changes. The sheet makes the placement of bodies especially clear. In the painting, the dark water, foliage and drapery separate the figures and link them to the woodland setting. A pose that reads as a set of lines on paper becomes part of a warmer, more enveloping scene on canvas. The drawing is a related object with its own collection and dimensions, not another title for the Barnes painting.
Where this painting sits in Renoir's bathers theme
Renoir had made an ambitious bather composition in the 1880s, now generally called The Large Bathers or The Great Bathers. The Art Institute treats the Barnes canvas as a return to this subject about a decade later. The two works have different figure arrangements, settings and collections. The link is Renoir's sustained interest in gathering bodies into a designed scene, drawing on older art while changing its mood and colour. Art Institute catalogue. [2]
The Barnes title can also be confused with other works named simply Bathers. Keep the accession BF901 and the forest setting in view when following a reproduction or reference. The Chicago drawing 2013.1010 is the close paper comparison; the Philadelphia canvas is the colour painting discussed on this page. Barnes collection record [1]; Art Institute catalogue. [2]
Looking again
Start with the woman lying across the front and follow the diagonal of her body towards the water. Find the centre pair, then trace the other figures around the pool. Look at how the side trees enclose them, and at the orange-red cloth anchoring the right corner. Finally compare the Barnes painting with the Chicago drawing: the near match in figures makes the painting's colour and woodland space more apparent. The work gains much of its energy from that tension between a spontaneous-looking gathering and a closely planned arrangement.
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Questions about Bathers in the Forest
The painting belongs to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, accession BF901. The related graphite drawing is in the Art Institute of Chicago, accession 2013.1010.
The Barnes painting is dated about 1897 in the Art Institute's scholarly account. The Chicago drawing is dated 1895/97.
No. Its title says “Study for,” but the Art Institute notes that it follows the painted composition so closely that it may instead be a tracing or record of an already developed design.
No. The Large Bathers is an earlier, different Renoir composition. Bathers in the Forest is the later Barnes canvas BF901.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to Bathers In The Forest?
How do the trees and foreground figures guide your eye around the pool?
Reader Insights
How do the trees and foreground figures guide your eye around the pool?
The Art Institute argues that its closely matching drawing may record a settled composition.
Where does colour make the painting different from the related graphite sheet?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s bathers in the forest.
References
- Barnes Foundation, Bathers in the Forest (Baigneuses dans la forêt), BF901. Collection identity and title View source.
- Art Institute of Chicago, catalogue entry and technical report for Study for “Bathers in the Forest”, 2013.1010. Dating and comparison with the Barnes canvas, interpretive discussion, overlay and drawing findings View source.
- Whole-work image: Wikimedia Commons, Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Baigneuses dans la forêt.jpg, a Public Domain Mark reproduction of the Barnes painting sourced to Gilles Néret, Renoir, peintre du bonheur: 1841–1919 (Taschen, 2001), p. 331. The 1024 × 762 local lead visually matches the documented composition View source.
