Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Richard Guino (1890-1973)

The Large Washerwoman, also known as The Large Bather,  was originally executed in 1917 by Richard Guino under the guidance of Renoir at Cagnes.  Renoir conceived of the washerwoman as an emblem for Water and worked on a companion piece depicting the figure of a blacksmith which was to represent Fire.  “The washerwoman is stooping, one knee on the ground, hands extended to draw from the water a cloth which falls back heavily.  The face, beneath the thick hair which is pulled back and knotted on the nape of the neck, has a distracted, dreamy expression.  The opulence of the flesh gives the masses a nice density… the statue is beautiful and imposing. It surprises the spectator by its vigor and its wildness.  The volumes have impressive fullness and density.  This huge body, with its rounded shoulders, its wall-like bosom and its powerful buttocks, resembles a great rock, or some heavy Roman architecture.  The two outstretched arms, bearing on the two columns formed by the wet linene (a sculptural find),  look like two mighty buttresses.  They foreshadow the primitive and arrogant forms which sculptors like Jacques Lipschitz and Henry Moore favor, and which define their abstract art”  (Paul Haesaerts, Renoir: Sculptor, New York, 1947, p. 31).