Renoir Nude Recovered

It is a minor painting, relatively inexpensive as far as Renoirs go and one that went missing 33 years ago, but, still. One should nearly always rejoice when a painting is finally returned to its rightful owner (or his heirs), yes? Such is the case with a small, late canvas by Pierre-Auguste Renoir entitled Female Nude that was taken from a restorer's lab in 1975, then recovered this week by the art squad of the Carabinieri, or paramilitary Italian police.

What I love about this painting:

1. Renoir painted it well after he'd been confined to a wheelchair and had to begin working with a brush tied to his wrist--at his insistence and due to his severe rheumatoid arthritis. You couldn't stop this man from painting until he breathed his last. As Renoir once said while tearing the head off a studio visitor who'd commented on the artist's "bravery" over working through such a disabling condition, ""One does not paint with one's hands."

2. The original owner's daughter is reported to have identified the painting due to a mark on the canvas, put there when she hit it with a ball she'd thrown as a child. Imagine that! A Milanese villa stuffed with lovely works of art, and we're so immune to the splendor that we're throwing balls in the house. This, truly, is the life I've always felt was mine to lead.

Image credit:

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Female Nude, ca. 1918 (?)
Oil on canvas
35 x 45 cm
Private Collection, Milan