The Bathers, large plate (Les baigneurs, grand planche)
Paul Cézanne
French, 1839–1906
1896-97
A lithograph in which Cézanne reinterprets his iconic bathers—solid, classical nude figures set within a broad landscape—exploring volume and composition through a printmaking process.
You’re struck by the statuesque bodies arranged across a shallow, stage‑like plain and by the frayed, brushy lithographic marks that make hills, trees, and skin feel both weighty and sketchy at once.
This work condenses Cézanne’s late investigation of form as geometric mass and pictorial structure, a turning point that helped move painting toward modernism and influenced the beginnings of Cubism.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
composition: 16 3/4 x 20 1/4" (42.6 x 51.5 cm); sheet: 19 x 24 13/16" (48.3 x 63 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Lillie P. Bliss Collection
Accession
4.1934
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
