Woman with Grapevine, 2nd variant c. 1904 - 1919

This is Renoir’s “Woman with Grapevine, 2nd variant,” a drawing of a woman and some figures, made with black ink on paper. I really enjoy this particular way of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. It's like he's thinking with the ink. I bet Renoir wasn't too precious about this thing. He was just searching, searching for the lines, the shapes, that would suggest a figure in a landscape. You can see he's willing to let go, to embrace the mistakes and the unexpected marks. The texture of the paper is really doing its job here, too, adding another layer of depth and complexity. It’s like Renoir is having a conversation with other artists, you know? The old masters, the Impressionists, all those people who were trying to capture a moment, a feeling, a fleeting impression. Ultimately, it's about the exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. And he does it with such confidence and ease. It is a wonderful piece of embodied expression.