Paysage Bords de Seine Paysage Bords de Seine Paysage Bords de Seine ("On the Shore of the Seine" or "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine") is an 1879 oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It was stolen in 1951 from the Baltimore Museum of Art and resurfaced in 2012. "Paysage Bords de Seine" was painted by Renoir in 1879. In June 1925, the painting was purchased by the Paris art gallery Bernheim-Jeune from a "Madame Papillon" (possibly Alphonsine Fournaise Papillon, a figure in the artist's "Luncheon of the Boating Party"). In January 1926, Herbert L. May purchased the painting from Bernheim-Jeune. In 1937, May's
The Painted Skin into English as "The Painted Skin" by the British sinologist Herbert A. Giles and was included in his 1880 translation of "Strange Tales". It reappeared with modifications in a subsequent edition, published in 1908. Since then, many other translators, including John Minford (2006), have published their translations of "The Painted Skin". On the surface, "The Painted Skin" is a story of a lustful scholar's encounter with a demon who disguises itself as a lady. Pu Songling intended for the story to be viewed as a parable of human desire and its negative consequences, and emphasised this with his appended comment,