Ladies Bathing

Ladies Bathing, dated 1721 and now at the National Galleries of Scotland, is one of Pater's earliest known works and one of the few dated examples from the period immediately following Watteau's death. Produced just as Pater was establishing his independent career, the canvas demonstrates that the bathing subject was among the first he developed on his own account. The National Galleries of Scotland acquisition places this early Pater alongside the Edinburgh collection's excellent representation of French painting, where it allows comparison with more developed examples of the bathing genre by his generation. The 1721 date establishes this as contemporaneous with the Watteau inheritance period and before Pater had fully differentiated his own style.

At the early date of 1721, Pater's technique still shows strong Watteau influence in the handling of foliage — the feathery, broken strokes that dissolve trees into atmospheric screens — while the figure work is more tentative than in his mature compositions. The flesh tones are lighter and less nuanced than in his later bathing scenes, reflecting an early exploration of the subject.