When Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted Woman Combing her Hair in 1907, he was deep into what critics now call his “late period”—a time when his hands were crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, yet he continued to paint with brushes strapped to his wrists. This work belongs to a series of intimate studies of women at their toilette, a theme Renoir returned to obsessively in his final years. Unlike his earlier, more feathery Impressionist technique, here he embraces a lush, almost sculptural handling of form, as if molding flesh with color.

The model’s identity remains uncertain, though some believe she was one of the young women who frequented his studio in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the Mediterranean light inspired a new warmth in his palette. The scene captures a private ritual: a woman, absorbed in the simple act of drawing a comb through her hair. Renoir chooses a moment of unselfconscious grace, the model’s head bowed, her arm raised, the curve of her back echoing the rounded forms that fill the composition. The light caresses her skin, lending it a pearly glow, while the background dissolves into soft, indistinct color.

The focus is on the tactile pleasure of paint—the way flesh, hair, and fabric seem to melt together. Compared to Edgar Degas’s sharper, more analytical studies of women at their toilette, Renoir’s approach is gentler, less concerned with the realities of labor or fatigue, and more with the sensuality of everyday life. Woman Combing her Hair was never exhibited in Renoir’s lifetime, and its early provenance is unclear—a common fate for many works from his late period, which were often sold directly from the studio to private collectors. Its medium is uncertain, though most of Renoir’s works from this era are oil on canvas.

Today, the painting is recognized as part of the artist’s exploration of the female form, a central theme that preoccupied him until his death in 1919. It stands as a testament to his resilience and evolving vision, bridging the airy touch of Impressionism with a more solid, almost classical sense of volume. The painting now hangs in a private collection, its gentle intimacy preserved for the rare viewer.