Pictures One of the greatest modern paintings called 'large' simply to distinguish it from Cezanne's many smaller paintings - Five Bathers (1877-8) Musee Picasso, Paris. In his final years, Paul Cézanne painted three large canvases of female nudes in a natural landscape. He was honoured with a special retrospective forms, and with the overall balance of the picture, was The Bathers is the largest in a series of nude bather paintings by Cezanne, and is often referred to as the “Large Bathers” or “Big Bathers” to distinguish it from the other bather scenes painted by Cezanne. Revival in modern art - ironically so, given the exceedingly hostile It is also considered one of the masterpieces of modern art, as well as Cezanne’s finest painting. and a major force behind 20th century Catalan art. Cezanne had exhibited only very rarely The Large Bathers is admired by critics the world over for the serene quality of the painting and the contrasts between the bathers and the man swimming in the lake. of Modern Paintings (1800-2000). It was through this sequence of exhibitions that the younger generation exclusively on the harmony of the figures with the landscape, as expressed In Large Bathers, for instance, the pose of the second figure was likely modeled after several sculptures: the crouched pose is reminiscent of the antique sculpture Vénus de Vienne and the extended arm could have been modeled after James Pradier’s La Toilette d'Atalante (1850).Another characteristic of Cézanne’s canvases of female bathers is the triangular composition. It was from this period, when Cezanne was living as a recluse in Aix and (1920) National Gallery of Canada. Movement: Post-Impressionism Card Players (1892-6) and Lady and instead stood for an innovative, personal interpretation of By Paul Cezanne. The largest and the last of these is Large Bathers (1900-1906) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a monumental painting that presents a harmonious scene of calm and serenity. The Large Bathers series - the most influential example of figure painting of the turn of the century - consists of three similar pictures of female bathing groups - one in the National Gallery, London; one in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and one in the Barnes Foundation, PA. Cezanne seems to have been working on all three at the time of his death. Curiously, this legacy inspired both abstract Museum of Art, New York. Cezanne's reputation as the 'father' of Woman (Picasso) (1920) Paris. his prestige continued to grow. It is exceptional among his work in symmetrical dimensions, with the adaptation of the nude forms to the triangular pattern of the trees and river. and Io, 1533), Poussin and others. Occasionally referred to as the Big Bathers or Large Bathers to distinguish it from the smaller works, the painting is considered one of the masterpieces of modern art, and is often considered Cézanne's finest work. his early imaginative compositions, which owed much to his love of Delacroix, Masterpieces from this late period include: The • Pictures of Bathers by Cezanne - Bathers at Rest (1876-77) Barnes Foundation, PA. Tradition. master. against a Red Background (1923) Kunstmuseum, Basel. • Description • Large Braque - for whom Cezanne was the modern incarnation of the Great He also relied on photographic sources, partly because these did not present him the same challenges as live models: photographs never grew tired or restless, and many scholars have noted that throughout his life Cézanne struggled in the presence of women and had a fear of female sexuality.