Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Paul Cezanne: The Large Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)

PD Image: The Large Bathers (1898-1905), oil on canvas painting by French painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906); dimensions 210.5 cm x 250.8 cm (82 7/8 in x 98 3/4 in) located at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, United States.

The Large Bathers (Deutsch: Die großen Badenden, Français: Les Grandes Baigneuses) is often considered the masterpiece of Paul Cézanne. First exhibited in 1906, this painting is the largest of a series of paintings with the same title ‘The Bathers’ by Cézanne. The others are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the National Gallery, London.

This painting is generally referred to as ‘The Large Bathers’ to distinguish it from other paintings of Cezanne’s ‘Bathers’ series and it is considered one of the masterpieces of Modern Art. The painting was featured in ‘100 Great Paintings’ a television series created by Edwin Mullins for BBC Two in 1980.

Because of the technique employed in painting landscapes and still lives, The Large Bathers often compared to the works of Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

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