Bathing - Art Motif

Art Motif

Bathing scenes were already in the Middle Ages a popular subject of painters. Most of the subjects were women shown nude, but the interest was probably less to the bathing itself rather than to provide the context for an art nude. From the Middle Ages, illustrated books of the time contained such bathing scenes. Biblical and mythological themes which featured bathing were depicted by numerous painters. Especially popular themes included Bathsheba in the bath, in which she is observed by King David, and Susanna in the sight of lecherous old men.

In the High Middle Ages, public baths were a popular subject of painting, with rather clear depictions of sexual advances, which probably were not based on actual observations. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, bathing was particularly popular as an allegory, which were observed in the ancient gods and nymphs bathing, such as with Titian and François Boucher. But the images of women bathing in the river were also found.

In the 19th century, the use of the bathing scene reached its high point in classicism, realism and impressionism. Edgar Degas, for example, painted over 100 paintings with a bathing theme. Sometimes painters worked with models, but especially in the 19th century, popular oriental themes and harem and turkish baths scenes were used. These were clearly based purely on the artists' imagination, because access by men to Islamic women was not generally permitted.

Known bathing scenes were painted by, among others:

• Lawrence Alma-Tadema
• William Adolphe Bouguereau
• François Boucher
• Paul Cézanne
• Lucas Cranach the Younger
• Edgar Degas
• Albrecht Dürer
• Anthonis van Dyck
• Jean-Léon Gérôme
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• Édouard Manet
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Sebastiano Ricci
• Domenico Tintoretto
• Tizian
• Anders Zorn

• Lucas Cranach, The Golden Age, 1530

• Tizian, Actéon Surprises Diane in Her Bath, 1559

• Wolfgang Heimbach, People Bathing, 1640

• François Boucher, Diana Leaving Her Bath, 1742

• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1862

• Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Bath, ca. 1880

• Edgar Degas, After the Bath, ca. 1890

• Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Baths at Caracalla, 1899

• Anders Zorn, Girls from Dalarna Having a Bath, 1906