Posted by Most recent update: 12th January 2026
This is a post about bathers and bathing in pictures.
Jules SCALBERT ( 1851 – 1928 ), The bather, circa 1885-1890
Oil on panel
Signed lower left
Size: 65 x 53cm
Private Collection
I quote from the ‘Ballesteros’ gallery’s website.
Jules Scalbert paints a charming beach scene. The center of the composition brings together a bather and her governess, the second hands a comforting bath towel to the first. In the surroundings, other bathers take advantage of the benefits of sea bathing, while families relax on the beach. The costumes and hairstyles place the scene between 1885 and 1890.
The bather is a traditional subject of painting that crosses the history of art. The artist reports here on the new experience of social leisure of sea bathing which is said to be good for health, a fashion that came from England during the 19th century.
The beach gradually ceasing to be a medical space becomes a place of sociability and entertainment for the wealthy classes of French society. The seaside resorts setting up casinos to occupy the evenings of their aristocratic clientele. The Pas-de-Calais knows its fans, whether in Boulogne, Malo-les-Bains or Le Touquet.
The rigor of the drawing, the finesse of the touch, the sense of detail, characteristics of the painter serve the delicate subject of the work.
Painter of genre, history and flowers, pupil of Isodore Pils and Henri Lehmann, he studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and made his debut at the Salon of 1876. He was a Member of French Artists from 1883. He depicts historical and genre scenes, allegorical subjects, figures, flowers.
He travels to Northern Europe and Italy. In Venice, Florence and Rome, he will admire the rigor of the drawing and the freshness of the colors of the masters of the Italian Renaissance.
He attracted a fervent private clientele which allowed him to stay away from artistic events.
Alfredo Stevens
‘El baño’ 1867
Jules Scalbert, French (1851 – 1928) Oil on Panel “Female Bathers” Signed Lower Left.
After Jules Scalbert (French, 1851-1928), “The Bathers,” early 20th C. copy, oil on board depicting two female figures disrobing next to a lake enclosed with trees in full foliage, signed LR “Carol,” expected wear including evidence of frame rubbing along edges, in carved gilt frame, frame with cracking and minor areas of loss.
Félix Vallotton. (1865-1925) Swiss -French
“The Bath, Summer Evening” 1892
Oil on canvas, 97 x 131 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich
Henri Lebasque (French) – Bathers at Pierrefonds, 1896
Oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux Arts d’Agen, France
From Munch’s prints: “Women Bathing”, 1897 (Colour printed woodcut) MUNCH, Oslo
Pierre Bonnard – Nu au tub 1903 huile sur toile
Le musée de la Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse, France
“Before Bathing”, (1906/07)
-Henri Lebasque-
John Sloan (1871-1951) South Beach Bathers, 1907-1908 Staten Island NY.
Félix Vallotton – Baigneuse de Face, Fond Gris, 1908.
Oil on canvas, 130.6 x 97 cm.
Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland.
Erich Heckel (German, 1883-1970)
Bathers in a Pond, 1908.
Oil on canvas,
75 x 95 cm
Neue Gallerie, New York.
A Favourite Custom 1909
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (Dutch，1836–1912）
Tate Britain, London, England
Erich Heckel (1883-1970)
Badende am Waldteich – Bathers at the Forest Pond
signed with the initials and dated ‘EH 10’ (lower left); signed and dated ‘Erich Heckel 10’ (on the reverse); titled ‘Badende am Waldteich’ (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
32 3/8 x 37 7/8 in. (82.2 x 96.2 cm.)
Painted in 1910
Private Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Two Bathers near the Woods, 1910/1911.
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner “Women Bathing among White Stones”, 1912, at the National Gallery of Art
Eduard Hopf – Bathers, 1925.
Oil on cardboard
Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
The artwork titled “Bath,” created by Zinaida Serebriakova in 1926, belongs to the Art Deco movement and falls under the genre of nude painting (nu).
In “Bath,” Zinaida Serebriakova presents a serene composition featuring two nude female figures. The central figure is seated, with her eyes cast downward and a gentle expression on her face, her long braid draping over her shoulder. To the right, another figure stands with her back to the viewer, engaged in the act of drying her hair. The use of warm earthy tones and soft lighting imbues the scene with a sense of intimacy and tranquility, capturing a private moment of contemplation and self-care. The background is an abstract blend of dark hues, which serves to highlight the curvature and form of the subjects’ bodies, accentuating the tactile softness of their skin. Serebriakova’s skilled rendering of the human form and her subtle play of light and shadow reflect the aesthetics of the Art Deco movement, emphasizing elegance and refinement.
The Tub (1888) “Oil on canvas, 131 x 80.5 cm” [Private collection] — Henri Gervex (French; 1852 – 1929)
In The Tub, Gervex paints a voluptuous young woman at her bath. She stands in a large zinc basin which includes a sponge and a bottle of perfumed bath oil. Her skin is soft, almost creamy with an air-brushed quality. The maid servant holding the white robe is painted with looser brushstrokes and less specific detail.
The model is most likely the famous Parisian courtesan Valtesse de la Bigne, who inspired Zola’s novel, Nana and was linked with many of the most well-known literati and artists of the day, including Courbet, Boudin and Detaille. She and Gervex were lovers from 1876 to around 1880.
Source: Gallery 19
Janet Cumbrae-Stewart
The Green Bowl 1927
Janet Agnes Cumbrae Stewart (23 December 1883 – 8 September 1960) was an Australian painter. She spent the 1920s and 1930s painting in Britain, France and Italy.
Bathers in the Sun (1930) “Watercolour and bodycolour on paper, 16.1 x 12.5 cm” [Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England ] — Konstantin Andreevich Somov (Russian; 1869 – 1939)
Konstantin Andreyevich Somov (November 30, 1869 – May 6, 1939) was a Russian artist associated with the Mir iskusstva (“World of Art”) movement that began in the last decade of the 19th century. Born into a family of a major art historian and Hermitage Museum curator Andrey Ivanovich Somov, he became interested in 18th-century art and music at an early age. After the Russian Revolution, he eventually emigrated to Paris, along with other prominent figures in the Russian arts.
Francis Picabia
Four Women at the Water’s Edge (1942)