Woman Tying her Shoe, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1918)
This is one of the final paintings Pierre-Auguste Renoir made before his death the following year. Having become disillusioned with Impressionism in the 1880s, he sought a style and subject matter that would align him instead with the ‘grandeur and simplicity of the ancient painters’. Foregoing modern urban subjects, Renoir focused on idealised images of women engaged in domestic activities like washing or dressing. A move from Paris to the south of France encouraged his use of warm, opulent colours, applied in thick brushstrokes.
