Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), Attributed to - Le Bagnanti

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes

Lyon, December 14, 1824 – Paris, October 24, 1898

Four bathers

Mixed media on paper (pastel, watercolor, charcoal, and pen)

23 cm x 29 cm



Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes held a prominent position in the French artistic scene of the 19th century, distinguished as an original interpreter of the revival of mural art and as a pioneering figure of symbolism. Coming from an educated bourgeois background, after a humanistic education and an initial orientation towards engineering, he embarked on an artistic career in Paris, briefly but meaningfully attending the ateliers of Delacroix, Couture, and Chassériau. While assimilating elements from each of these masters, he soon developed a personal language characterized by strict formal discipline and a poetic of narrative simplicity.

His activity was primarily focused on monumental decoration, an area in which he achieved an exemplary stature. From the 1860s onward, with the paintings Porte de l’Orient and Porte de l’Occident for the Museum of Marseille, Puvis revealed an original balance between classical form and modern sensibility. This synthesis was fully realized in cycles created for important public complexes: at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, he produced The Sacred Grove dear to the Arts and the Muses (1883–1884), which became one of the highest manifestos of his idealizing vision; at the Sorbonne, he executed The Arts and The Sciences (1887–1889), works in which compositional measure and allegorical character give the decorative program a tone of strict monumentality; for the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, he developed a series of panels dedicated to the city's historical and moral continuity.

Particularly prestigious was also the commission of the Panthéon, where between 1874 and 1890 Puvis painted celebratory cycles of the spiritual and civil mission of the French nation, confirming his ability to interpret public decoration as a space for visual education and identity construction. In his mature years, his growing international reputation also earned him commissions abroad, including the famous Arcadia (1883–1896) for the Boston Library, a paradigmatic example of his harmonious and timeless aesthetic.

The work depicted portrays a group of bathers set in a woodland landscape near a body of water. The composition, created with mixed media (probably charcoal, chalk, and touches of watercolor or gouache), is arranged around two large trees that define the space and create a kind of natural stage.

In the foreground, on the right, a nude female figure is distinguished, caught in the act of slightly leaning forward while holding a drape. The body, shaped by an energetic line and light chromatic veils, suggests the intimate and everyday gesture of drying oneself after a bath.

In the background, other bathers wrapped in light drapery can be seen: two on the left, resting near the tree trunk, while one raises her arm in a gesture that may suggest calling or attracting the attention of her companions; a further figure, barely perceptible on the right, seems to peek out between the trunks. The landscape is rendered in brown, ochre, and grayish tones, while the lake's surface, lighter in color, illuminates the scene with its reflections.

Parallels can be drawn with other graphic works by Puvis de Chavannes, who is known for developing his subjects through a series of preparatory studies, which are revisited and sometimes completed in later versions until the final composition of the painting is achieved.

The drawing under examination shows a close affinity with the example of The Bathers (or Laundresses) preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). In that work, the cursive and vibrant line of the initial sketch is gradually refined and shaped through the integration of charcoal and delicate watercolor washes.

Another significant point of comparison is the drawing of the Bagnanti from the Musée du Louvre (RF 2290). In addition to Puvis's typical female anatomies, the latter also features a landscape reminiscent of our work, characterized by trees with gnarled branches and sparse foliage.

This autumnal atmosphere is not only consistent with his stylistic signature but also aligns with the artist's meditative spirit, inclined to reinterpret Greek classicism and infuse it with the feelings of contemplation typical of his painting.