Few things are as evocative, intimate, and private as moments spent bathing.
The bathtub offers an emotional framework. Door locked, body submerged, the bathtub is an internal world. The figure can literally be soaked in it.
Most painted bathers are young attractive women, of course, so the gender, race, and body issues are very present. I’d love to see more varied bodies in the water. An older woman? Men? I found one modern bathing man, an illustration in pink. The other was murdered in 1793. Deceased but still a man. Included.
For my own paintings, the bathtub offers a compositional framework. Similar to Degas, I’d rather draw a woman washing her ankle than draw a woman just standing there. The bathtub edge gives a physical support system to prop the limbs at angles from the body. Triangles are formed, and the washrag adds an extra excuse for connections: a hand touches a knee, and the background becomes enclosed. Compositionally, her directed gaze helps the viewer’s eyes circulate around the drawing so flow is easier, and the scene becomes a study of a moment, not just a study of a body.
From above, the bathtub edge lines up with the canvas. Nothing need be corralled into the frame, it’s done already.
Water is a welcome compliment to the figure. Water is emotional, it’s movement. It’s also a technical challenge. The flesh interacts with water and the artist gets to play with color shifts, with solid form and translucency.
Below is a collection of bathtub paintings. I’d love to add more. No doubt I’m missing thousands, by artists I’ve forgotten or have yet to learn about. If you have a painting to add to the collection, please post it here.
Enjoy.
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Women at a Bath, Salon of 1885
Alfred George Stevens 1867
Reinhold Callmander (1840-1922)
Au Bain, 1895 Ramon Casas
Mary Cassatt – The Child’s Bath
Edgar Degas, Woman in a Tub c.1883
Leo Putz, 1911
Pierre Bonnard, Woman in a tub, 1912
Degas
Pierre Bonnard
Woman in a Tub – Edouard Manet
Degas
Everett Shinn, 1903 Girl in Bathtub
Degas
Degas
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard, Grand nu a la baignoire, 1924
Nude in the Bath 1925 by Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard’s “Nude in the Bath,” watercolor and gouache 1940
Pierre Bonnard
The Bath 1925 by Pierre Bonnard 1867-1947
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918)
Roy Lichtenstein 1963
What the Water Gave Me, Frida Kahlo
Marc Chagall 1916
Brett Whiteley 1963
Pierre Bonnard
Wayne Thiebaud 1920
Hendrik Kernstens
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lea Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Lee Price
Alyssa Monks
Adam Lupton Dane Halo
Ruthie V. Submerge, Ruthie V. 2015
Subspace, Ruthie V. 2015
Katy Schneider
Danny McGraw
Kim Cogan
Woman in the bathtub, 1968 — López García
Vincent Desiderio Soaking, 2005
Vincent Desiderio
Vincent Desiderio, The Bath, 2009, oil on linen
Juan Martinez Bengoechea
Death of Marat, David
Alik Assatrian
Shirahone Hotspring, Shinshu by Shiro Kasamatsu (1935)
Children with jack-o-lanterns, a sketch by Katie Jo Keppinger, in Thursday’s class for drawing and painting. I love Keppinger’s marks, bold and sensitive like Kathe Kollwitz, moody as Edvard Monk. This drawing uses a variety of edges and plenty of dark values and contrast to produce the sensation of glow. Organic circles, strong angles, and …
William Robinson is an Australian painter, born in 1936. His enormous paintings of the Australian landscape often involve multiple perspectives with disorienting and twisting effects. He wants his viewers to feel that they are enclosed within a landscape, having it unfold before them. “Living in the country everything moves—the seasons, the clouds, nothing is set. …
I like to overlap figures, and use the shadow shapes to carve out abstracts within the body. This doesn’t just introduce abstraction, it also introduces a sense of time, and movement within a static image, in which I am fascinated. I asked my model how she felt about having her head cut off in …
Today is memory and imagination day in our 30 day creative challenge. This one’s great to do with kids! New Scientific Discovery Did you hear? Scientists discovered a new __________ . The scientific name for it is __________ . It looks like a __________ , it acts like a __________ , and it lives in …
In the Bathtub
Few things are as evocative, intimate, and private as moments spent bathing.
The bathtub offers an emotional framework. Door locked, body submerged, the bathtub is an internal world. The figure can literally be soaked in it.
Most painted bathers are young attractive women, of course, so the gender, race, and body issues are very present. I’d love to see more varied bodies in the water. An older woman? Men? I found one modern bathing man, an illustration in pink. The other was murdered in 1793. Deceased but still a man. Included.
For my own paintings, the bathtub offers a compositional framework. Similar to Degas, I’d rather draw a woman washing her ankle than draw a woman just standing there. The bathtub edge gives a physical support system to prop the limbs at angles from the body. Triangles are formed, and the washrag adds an extra excuse for connections: a hand touches a knee, and the background becomes enclosed. Compositionally, her directed gaze helps the viewer’s eyes circulate around the drawing so flow is easier, and the scene becomes a study of a moment, not just a study of a body.
From above, the bathtub edge lines up with the canvas. Nothing need be corralled into the frame, it’s done already.
Water is a welcome compliment to the figure. Water is emotional, it’s movement. It’s also a technical challenge. The flesh interacts with water and the artist gets to play with color shifts, with solid form and translucency.
Below is a collection of bathtub paintings. I’d love to add more. No doubt I’m missing thousands, by artists I’ve forgotten or have yet to learn about. If you have a painting to add to the collection, please post it here.
Enjoy.
Related Posts
Effects of Light: Children with jack-o-lanterns
Children with jack-o-lanterns, a sketch by Katie Jo Keppinger, in Thursday’s class for drawing and painting. I love Keppinger’s marks, bold and sensitive like Kathe Kollwitz, moody as Edvard Monk. This drawing uses a variety of edges and plenty of dark values and contrast to produce the sensation of glow. Organic circles, strong angles, and …
William Robinson’s Perspectives
William Robinson is an Australian painter, born in 1936. His enormous paintings of the Australian landscape often involve multiple perspectives with disorienting and twisting effects. He wants his viewers to feel that they are enclosed within a landscape, having it unfold before them. “Living in the country everything moves—the seasons, the clouds, nothing is set. …
Some Pretty Paintings: Horus
I like to overlap figures, and use the shadow shapes to carve out abstracts within the body. This doesn’t just introduce abstraction, it also introduces a sense of time, and movement within a static image, in which I am fascinated. I asked my model how she felt about having her head cut off in …
30SAL Challenge: Scientists have discovered a new ____
Today is memory and imagination day in our 30 day creative challenge. This one’s great to do with kids! New Scientific Discovery Did you hear? Scientists discovered a new __________ . The scientific name for it is __________ . It looks like a __________ , it acts like a __________ , and it lives in …