The Bathers

Paul Cézanne, 1899-1904

Download1686 × 1391 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 51.3 × 61.7 cm (20 3/16 × 24 1/4 in.); Framed: 69.3 × 79.7 × 8.3 cm (27 1/4 × 31 3/8 × 3 1/4 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Paul Cezanne set this idyllic view of a group of bathers in a frame of foliage. He rendered the ground, water, trees, and sky with patches of hatching that seem to register the energy he felt when painting. His primary concern, however, seems to have been striking a balance between the vigor of the bodies and the restfulness of the setting through individual poses and figure groupings—some invented, some likely derived from his other works depicting this subject.

Over the course of his career, Cezanne frequently revisited groups of bathers in nature. Through his multiple studies of the subject, he reconceived the classical motif of nudes outdoors in a modern style.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.