Body of work

New Kimbell exhibition lets viewers draw their own conclusions about Renoir's nudes

The Kimbell Art Museum is on track for a blockbuster year. First, Monet brought people there in droves. Now, Renoir gets his chance.

That is, if viewers will take a chance on Renoir.

The Fort Worth museum's newest exhibition,"Renoir: The Body, The Senses," opened October 27 for a three-month run that will span the bustling holiday season. It is the first major exhibition devoted solely to French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's lifelong treatment of the nude.

There's a lot of material to work with, as scholars often talk of Renoir's "preoccupation" with the female form. The exhibition includes about 60 paintings, drawings, pastels, and sculptures by Renoir, as well as works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers.

"These are among the most prized possessions in the national and international collections they come from," says Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum, in a statement.

Co-organized by George T. M. Shackelford, deputy director at the Kimbell, and Esther Bell, the Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the Fort Worth display follows a critically acclaimed presentation at the Clark over the summer. One newspaper even headlined its review, "How Renoir’s nudes helped the Clark get its groove back."

It debuts at the Kimbell just a month and some change short of the 100th anniversary his death in France on December 3, 1919.

But Renoir isn't everyone's cup of thé.

Renoir-hating is a passion, a hobby, a movement, even. In its review of the Clark presentation, The Washington Postwrote, "Renoir-loathing is a default position in today’s art world and seems to gather more adherents in the wider population each year."

Renoir's paintings of the human form weren't so popular when he first displayed them, either. During his lifetime, he was idolized by artists, but also brutally condemned by them.

In 1876, critic Albert Wolff wrote in Le Figaro, "Would someone kindly explain to M. Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh with the green and purplish blotches that indicate a state of complete putrefaction in a corpse" — referring to Study: Torso, Effect of Sun, which the exhibition organizers point out is now regarded as one of the high points of Impressionism.

To be sure, there are lots of those blotchy, fleshy nudes on display at the Kimbell.

Too blotchy? Too fleshy? Too many? That's for the viewer to decide.

Shackelford and Bell say the aim of the presentation is to provide new perspectives about Renoir's stylistic trajectory through the lens of a singular subject he painted so often. The exhibition doesn't necessarily extol him, and it doesn't follow a linear path through his career.

But it does present him as an artist worthy of investigation, contemplation, and reconsideration. They encourage audiences to look at his use of light and dark — "how the body is a receptacle for sunlight," as Bell put it — as well as his changing style over time and his influence on other artists. (The very last painting in the exhibition is Picasso's Two Reclining Nudes, 1968, influenced by Renoir.)

Must-see paintings on display include Sleeping Girl, 1880; Blonde Braiding her Hair, 1886; Boy with a Cat, 1868 (one of the only male nudes in the exhibition); the full-length Reclining Nude and Large Nude on Cushions, 1906 and 1907; The Bathers, 1918-19; and Bather Seated in a Landscape, Called Eurydice, 1902-4.

"By showing Renoir's works alongside those of artists as diverse as Boucher, Degas and Picasso, we're hoping to demonstrate the ways in which his achievements grow out of the past, react to his present, and exert a profound influence on the future," Shackelford says. "We think these juxtapositions will surprise and delight exhibition visitors."

In other words, you might be surprised at how much you like them.

Or ... not.

You get to draw your own conclusion.

"Renoir: Body and the Senses" will be on view at the Kimbell through January 26, 2020. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and students, $14 for children ages 6-11, and free for children under 6. For more information and tickets, visit the museum's website.

Renoir, Bathers Playing with a Crab, 1897.

Renoir, Bathers With A Crab

Photo courtesy of Kimbell Art Museum

Renoir, Bathers Playing with a Crab, 1897.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

The Torlonia Nile

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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