Woman with Grapevine

Woman with Grapevine is a striking lithograph created by Pierre Auguste Renoir, executed between 1899 and 1909 in collaboration with the master printer Auguste Clot and the influential publisher Ambroise Vollard. This late-career print captures Renoir’s enduring fascination with the female form, rendering the figure with an intimate yet classical sensibility characteristic of his output during the turn of the century in France.

The work is executed as a delicate lithograph in black ink, printed on fine cream Japanese paper. This specialized pairing of technique and material highlights the subtle modeling and soft, diffused light for which Renoir was known. The period during which the piece was produced marks a crucial moment for graphic arts; Vollard actively championed the medium by commissioning leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists to produce prints, thereby elevating their status alongside paintings. This particular collaboration with Clot ensured technical brilliance and contributed significantly to the print revival sweeping through Paris.

The subject's connection to the grapevine, often a symbol of natural abundance or Bacchic association, links this French artwork to classical and Renaissance traditions, interpreting them through a decidedly modern lens. As one of Renoir’s significant experiments in the graphic medium, this work provides crucial insight into the artist’s evolving draughtsmanship during his final decades. This historically important example of fin-de-siècle prints is currently held in the esteemed collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, serving as a key document of late Impressionism.