| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA |
| Location History: | 1898-1905: Created by Cézanne\'s studio in Aix-en-Provence, France, and remained there until 1906, till his death. 1907: Parisian Art dealer Ambroise Vollard purchased from Cezanne\'s son. Early 1920s: Auguste Pellerin, Paris. Stayed in the family till 1936. 1936: Sent to New York through Wildenstein & Co. as an agent for Pellerin. 1937: Purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art for $110,000. Facilitated by a museum benefactor, Joseph E. Widener. |
One of Paul Cezanne's last works is the 'Les Grandes Baigneuses', or commonly known as ‘The Large Bathers’, reckoned to be an unfinished masterpiece that has transformed art even long after he passed. It is one of the largest works of Cezanne from his 'Bather' series, which is his largest collection created, spanning over 7 years of this collection. Due to nature taking its course, we are left with an unfinished artwork, but it still serves as the foundation for modern art and abstraction. Even in its rough style, the Large Bathers serve as a pinnacle point of breaking from the traditional art and adding structure, symbols and emotional vitality and expression. The use of blues and tints of skin, while the painting from afar looks triangular, with the nude subjects lounging and bathing. It is not perfect, and true to what the subjects look like, and it’s not even supposed to. It is rough, messy and yet imposes a feeling of serenity, like the peace in simple life, and humans stripped to their core, without the constraints of society. In 1907, a year after Cezanne died, Picasso’s 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' was finished, which used similar themes and patterns of brushstrokes and representation. It is said that Cezanne pays homage to Titian and Rubens by painting the Bathers, while some also argue that it is nowhere close to artists like Titian. Perhaps it was a way to pay respect to these artistic legends while maintaining his originality and free-spirited nature depicted by his paintings. Regardless, it is impossible to argue that this painting serves as a medium to break the traditional standards of subject representation and paves the way for modern art forms to truly be free of limitation and be built on expression.
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