Paul Cézanne

Mme Pierre Reinach-Goujon, Paris
Wildenstein Galleries, New York
Ms Betsy Babcock, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 8, 2001, lot 137
Acquired at the above by the present owner

After a period in which many of his figure paintings depicted scenes of violence, in the early 1870s Cézanne began to depict a more calm subject that would occupy him for the remainder of his career: bathers. While most of Cézanne's depictions of bathers would depict either male or female bathers, a few works feature both genders, including the present work. These images offer a special view of Cézanne's conception of the relation of the genders, and in Baigneurs et Baigneuses the two men recline in relaxed postures, while the women bathe, and in the case of the standing figure, appear to pose for the men. While they appear to be posing and seek admiration, the female nudes in the present work appear in their Arcadian setting and have a plausible explanation for their nudity. Further, the male bathers in the present work can be read partly as images of the artist himself, creating a relaxed relationship between men and women in the act of observation. It is in these early images of male and female bathers that Cézanne develops the idea of acknowledged observation as a central aim. By making his own role in the image clear, the one who observes, Cézanne brings his own perception to the forefront as the guiding principle for his work.

Fig. 1, Paul Cézanne, Baigneurs et Baigneuses, circa 1870, Private Collection