The Bather

1895

Camille Pissarro

Artist, French, born St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1830 - 1903

A pale-skinned woman standing on a riverbank holds a white cloth against her mostly nude body in this vertical landscape painting. Painted with pine and celery green, tawny brown, watery blue, and peach, the short, tightly packed strokes create a blurred effect. The woman takes up the lower right quadrant of the composition. Her body and face angle to our right, and she looks down in that direction. Her blond hair is swept up and back, and her face is flushed pink. The white cloth she holds across her thighs is shaded with ice blue. An indistinct pile of amethyst purple, marine blue, and brown by her feet suggest discarded clothing. The tree behind her curves up to fill the top third with its verdant canopy. To our left, the river is painted in cool tones of white, petal pink, and slate blue, and flows from the lower left toward a line of trees in the middle distance. Their fresh greens are reflected in the water’s surface and ivory-colored clouds almost fill the power-blue sky above them. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “C.Pissarro.95.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 35.3 x 27.3 cm (13 7/8 x 10 3/4 in.)
    framed: 53.7 x 45.1 x 5.7 cm (21 1/8 x 17 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.54

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); by whom sold 1895 to Baron Tadamasa Hayashi [1853-1906], Tokyo; (his sale, American Art Association, New York, 9 January 1913, no. 117); purchased by (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 29 October 1926 to (Josef Stransky). (Wildenstein & Co., London and New York); sold 1 March 1927 to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York;[2] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1]Sale to Stransky per Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Catalogue critique des peintures, 2005, III:no. 1063. Stransky often worked for Wildenstein and was likely their source of the painting.
[2]Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial records.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1917

  • Paintings by Pissarro, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1917, no. 23

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1929

  • Dale, Maud. Before Manet to Modigliani from the Chester Dale Collection. New York, 1929: no. 35, repro.

1939

  • Pissarro, Ludovic and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, son art, son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1939: 1:211, no. 937, as La Baigneuse; 2:pl. 189.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 104, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 104.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 92, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 270, repro.

1981

  • Lloyd, Christopher. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1981:121, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 508, no. 760, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 313, repro.

2005

  • Pissarro, Joachim and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of the Paintings, 3 vols., Milan, Paris and New York, 2005: III:no. 1063, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: C.Pissarro.95

Wikidata ID

Q20190473

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