The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Bathers Playing with a Crab

Bathers Playing with a Crab

c. 1897
(French, 1841–1919)
Framed: 75.5 x 85.5 x 10 cm (29 3/4 x 33 11/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 54.6 x 65.7 cm (21 1/2 x 25 7/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

After viewing Renaissance paintings on a trip to Italy in 1881, Renoir attempted to bring greater order and stability to Impressionism by merging flickering light effects with solid forms. He conveyed this new ambition in a series of paintings of nude bathers, a subject that preoccupied him from 1883 until his death in 1919. Avant-garde artists of the 20th century admired his ability to blend modernist and classicizing tendencies.
  • [Galerie Georges Bernheim, Paris.]
    Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland, OH, purchased on February 18, 1920
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, purchased on May 29, 1939
  • Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 35 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 507 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 176 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 176 archive.org
    Fezzi, Elda. L'opera completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista, 1869-1883. Milano: Rizzoli, 1972. Reproduced: p. 120, fig. 690
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 218 archive.org
    Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 552-555, Vol. II, no. 186
    Solana, Guillermo. Renoir: Intimacy. Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2016. Reproduced: p. 167, cat. no. 68
    Bell, Esther. "Renoir and the Rococo Nude." In Renoir: The Body, the Senses. Esther Bell and George T. M. Shackelford, eds., 51-67.
    Williamstown, Massachusetts: Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2019. Mentioned: P. 59; Reproduced: P. 62, fig. 52; cat. no. 45
  • Renoir: The Body, The Senses. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 8-September 22, 2019); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (October 27, 2019-January 26, 2020).
    Renoir: Intimacy. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (October 18, 2016-January 22, 2017); Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, 48011 Bilbao, Spain (February 7-May 15, 2017).
    Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (10/18/2016 – 1/22/2017) and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain (2/7/2017 – 5/15/2017): "Renoir: Intimacy"
    A Summer at the Water's Edge: Leisure Activities and Impressionism. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France (April 27-September 29, 2013).
    RMN (organizer); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, France (4/27/2013 - 9/23/2013): "A Summer at the Water's Edge: Leisure Activities and Impressionism"
    Renoir in the 20th Century. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (September 23, 2009-January 4, 2010); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (February 14-May 9, 2010); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (June 12-September 5, 2010).
    RMN (organizer); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (9/23/2009-1/4/2010), LACMA (2/14/2010-5/9/2010), and Philadelphia Museum of Art (6/12/2010-9/5/2010): "Pierre-Auguste Renoir"
    Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting. San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (organizer) (June 29-September 15, 2002); El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX (November 3, 2002-February 16, 2003).
    San Diego Museum of Art (6/29/2002 - 9/15/2002) and El Paso Museum of Art (11/3/2002-2/16/2003), "Idol of the Moderns: Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American Painting"
    Renoir. Künsthalle Tubingen (organizer) (January 20-May 26, 1996).
    Kunsthalle Tübingen. Renoir (1996), no. 86 (repr.).
    Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Past Rediscovered: French Painting 1800-1900 (1969), no. 71 (repr.).
    The Venetian Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957).
    Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).
    CMA. The Venetian Tradition (1956), no. 37 (as dated 1897), pl. 56.
    Fort Wayne (Ind.) Art School and Museum. Picture of the Month (May 1953), no cat.
    Omaha, Joslyn Memorial Art Museum. Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition-The Beginnings of Modern Painting: France 1800-1900 (1951), 5.
    New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co. Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces by Delacroix and Renoir (1948), 73 (repr.), no. 24.
    19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).
    French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    New York, Duveen Galleries. Centennial Loan Exhibition 1841-1941: Renoir (1941), 19, no. 64, pl. 64, as dated 1892.
    Washington, D.C., Phillips Memorial Gallery. Emotional Design in Painting (1940), no. 2.
    New York, World's Fair. Masterpieces of Art (1940), no. 331, as dated 1897.
    New York, Museum of Modern Art. Art in Our Time (1939), no. 52 (repr.).
    New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Renoir: A Special Exhibition of His Paintings (1937), 9, no. 56 (repr.).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    CMA. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936), no. 307, pl. 66.
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum. Paintings by Manet and Renoir (1933), in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 29 (December 1933): 19, Baigneuses, 1897, Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland.
    CMA. French Art since 1800 (1929), in CMA Bulletin 16 (1929): 162.
    Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute; cma. Exhibition of Paintings: Edouard Manet, Pierre Renoir, Berthe Morisot (1924-25), no. 38, lent by R. M. Coe; repr. opp. title page (no cat. for Cleveland showing).
    CMA. French Paintings of the Later XIX Century (1921), no cat., lent by Ralph Coe.
  • {{cite web|title=Bathers Playing with a Crab|url=false|author=Pierre-Auguste Renoir|year=c. 1897|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1939.269