The artwork titled “Bathers. Mont Sainte-Victoire in the Background” was created by French artist Paul Cézanne around 1902, employing watercolor on paper as his medium. Positioned within the Cubist movement, this piece is part of Cézanne’s “Bathers” series and depicts a landscape genre. The artwork belongs to a private collection and is characteristic of Cézanne’s exploration of form and color that influenced the emergence of Cubism.
In the artwork, viewers are presented with a scene that exhibits a group of figures, presumably bathers, amidst a natural setting. The bathers are arranged in the foreground, blending with the surroundings through a harmonious palette of blues, greens, and earth tones. Mont Sainte-Victoire can be seen in the background, suggesting depth and providing a geographical context to the scene. Characteristic of Cézanne’s style, the paint application renders both the figures and the landscape in a manner that distorts traditional perspectives, seeking to unite the composition through the interplay of shapes and colors. The brushwork is loose, delivering a sense of fluidity that makes the elements of the artwork seem to be in constant dialogue with each other. Despite being associated with the Cubist movement, this particular work captures a transitional phase in Cézanne’s artistic journey where he is experimenting with form and spatial relationships, which would later significantly influence the Cubist painters.
