The Bathers (Les Baigneuses)

  • Social Sharing

The Bathers (Les Baigneuses)

1786

Claude-Joseph Vernet

Not on view

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

Currently on view

New acquisitions

Back to top