The Bather

1846/1848

Jean-François Millet

Artist, French, 1814 - 1875

A nude, pale-skinned woman sits on a grassy bank and extends one leg into the water in this loosely painted, horizontal composition. Her small breasts are bare, and the arm we see has some muscular definition. At the center of the painting, the woman’s body is angled to our left, and she looks down in that direction. Her skin is pale on her torso and upper arms and legs and deepens to reddish brown on her face, hands, and lower legs. Her hands are planted by her hips, and her left knee is sharply bent to support her weight near the water’s edge. Her other leg reaches into the water up to the knee. Tall grasses around her are loosely painted as is a golden brown hill that nearly reaches the top edge of the panel. The silhouette of a cow is outlined against the sliver of pale blue sky in the uppermost sixth of the painting. The artist signed the lower right corner, “JF Millet.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Gift of R. Horace Gallatin

  • Dimensions

    overall: 18.5 x 24.1 cm (7 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.)
    framed: 32.9 x 38.7 x 5.4 cm (12 15/16 x 15 1/4 x 2 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1949.1.9

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Adolph Edward Borie [1809-1880] and his wife, née Elizabeth Dundas McKean, Philadelphia; possibly purchased from Borie or at a sale by George C. Thomas, Philadelphia.[1] (M. Knoedler & Co, London, New York, and Paris), in 1905, and again on consignment in 1910;[2] sold 1910 to R. Horace Gallatin [1871-1948], New York; gift 1949 to NGA.
[1] Lugt lists no Borie sale; the painting was not in the Thomas sale at Samuel Freeman, Philadelphia, 12-13 November 1924.
[2] Knoedler dates confirmed by Robert L. Herbert in a letter dated 15 November 1973 in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1939

  • Classics of the Nude, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1939, no. 22.

1967

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, 1967-1971.

2019

  • Jean-François Millet: Sowing the Seeds of Modern Art, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 2019 - 2020, no. 10, repro.

Bibliography

1915

  • Hoeber, Arthur. The Barbizon Painters. New York, 1915: repro. opposite 17.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 90.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 79, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 234, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 269, repro.

2000

  • Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 321-323, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: J F Millet

Wikidata ID

Q20187607

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