Around 200 of Cezanne’s works depict male and female nude bathers, either singly or in groups, in a landscape. This large painting is one of three pictures of female bathers that Cezanne worked on during the final decade of his life. They represent the culmination of his lifelong investigation of this subject and the climax of his entire career, and were hugely influential on early twentieth-century art.
The subject of women relaxing in a woodland glade beneath an azure sky draws on a classical tradition of pastoral scenes of nude or semi-nude figures in an idealised landscape. More particularly, it recalls pictures of bathing nymphs and goddesses, especially the mythological scenes of Venetian Renaissance art. However, Cezanne’s painting has no clear narrative or literary source. The composition, which echoes the pyramidal base of a mountain, as well as the use of colour, serves to integrate the women with the landscape. Cezanne’s last paintings might perhaps be seen as his final celebration of nature and our union with it.
This is a description of 'The Bathers' by Paul Cezanne, painted between 1894 and 1905. It is oil on canvas, just over 127 cm high by nearly 2 metres wide. It has a gold frame.
A group of eleven naked women occupy the bottom half of this large picture, seated, standing and reclining, in a woody glade. Most hold or are partially draped with white cloths. The women have not been painted realistically but simplified, yet they have a strong presence. Their bodies are modelled in warm, browny-oranges and blues, strongly outlined in blue, so we are aware of their 3D solidity and the patterns of their silhouettes. Their outlines are thick and confident, made up from multiple marks. Some of the women are turned away from us, others towards us, but their faces are mask-like, with little detail.
Behind the women, across the centre of the painting is a line of trees beneath pale clouds. A patch of gold coloured paint perhaps indicates a sunrise or sunset. Above the clouds the sky is deep blues. In spite of the title of the painting, there is no evidence of any water to bathe in.
The women are flanked by substantial tree trunks that lean to the right and form strong diagonals. This is echoed by some of the figures and counterbalanced by others who lean to the left, giving the painting a tight structure.
Around 1880 Cezanne developed his so-called ‘constructive’ stroke, applying paint in uniform directional brushstrokes across his paintings. This allowed him to create both three dimensional forms but also to unify the entire surface of the composition.
In this painting the warm foreground is made up from fairly small strokes in oranges, light browns and yellows, suggesting a sandy river bank. It becomes slightly darker as it reaches the bodies of the women.
In a small triangular area at the centre there is the indistinct curving shape of a little dog painted in dark blues. It lies with its head resting on its paws to the right, on a white bag from which have rolled five oranges.
To the left of the dog, a seated woman with dark hair has her quite crudely painted right hand resting on the little dog’s back.
To the dog’s right, a woman with brown hair reclines on her stomach, her curious large orange foot in the foreground nearest to us, her hands gesturing upwards into the centre of the painting.
A woman on the far left of the group appears to be striding towards its centre. She is balanced by a much smaller figure walking in from the far right, her size suggesting she is further away than the others. Her head bowed, her almost ghostly body stands out against deep blue foliage.
Behind her two almost identical figures with auburn hair have their back to us and the rest of the group. It is not clear what they are doing, but perhaps they are stepping down into water, or looking at their reflections.
This work is one of three large paintings of bathers that Cezanne made in the years leading up to his death in 1906. They seem to be a fusion of his lifelong interest in the female nude and his passion for the landscape of his native Provence in the South of France.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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