Copy after the Painting by Rubens "The Council of Gods"

This 1861 copy of Rubens's 'Council of Gods,' now in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, documents Renoir's early years in the Louvre, where he trained himself by copying the great masters before enrolling formally at the École des Beaux-Arts. Rubens was a perennial touchstone for Renoir — his celebration of fleshy, warm-skinned women, his rich colour, and his painterly freedom remained influential throughout Renoir's career. This early copy shows a young artist absorbing the Baroque master's compositional complexity and chromatic richness, lessons that would surface decades later in his late nudes and mythological subjects.

The young Renoir's copy reveals careful attention to Rubens's warm tonality and figure arrangement. The flesh tones already show the pinkish warmth that would become Renoir's signature. His brushwork is more careful and deliberate than his mature manner, following the original's layered academic finish.