After the Bath (La Sortie du bain)

After the Bath (La Sortie du bain), 1910, is among Renoir's late post-bathing figures at the Barnes Foundation, showing a woman in the act of drying herself after emerging from water. This compositional type—distinguished from the Après le bain variant by its more specific moment of towelling—gave him the opportunity for unusual figure poses: arms raised or reaching, torso twisting, the figure in mid-movement rather than settled. The Barnes collection holds several versions of this subject that document his systematic exploration of the post-bath figure across his final decade.

The act of drying creates a dynamic pose with upraised arms and a twisting torso that Renoir captures with broadly applied warm flesh modelling. The towelling cloth provides lighter passages against the flesh, and the loosely indicated setting allows the figure's active pose to dominate the composition.