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The Bathers (Les Baigneuses)
1786
From the mouth of a grotto, Vernet’s vista opens onto a Mediterranean harbor at sunset. Washerwomen bathe in the warm shallows, while fishermen gather their nets in the middle distance, and a great ship enters port. Famous for such scenes, Vernet received a commission from the crown to paint the fifteen principal ports of France: a project celebrating the nation’s growing maritime power. This work does not belong to that series, presenting instead an imaginary amalgam of various Mediterranean ports, conceived, in the words of a 1786 auction catalogue, to “astonish and charm lovers of art.”
- Artist
- Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789)
- Title
- The Bathers (Les Baigneuses)
- Date
- 1786
- Place of Creation
- France
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 22 1/2 x 32 1/2 in. (57.2 x 82.6 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Gift of Mrs. Georgia Worthington
- Accession Number
- 76.29
