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The Bather
Jean-François Millet·1846/1848
Historical Context
Millet's Bather from 1846-48 is one of his figure studies from his pre-Barbizon Paris years when he was exploring the female nude alongside his peasant subjects. The nude was a required subject for serious figure painting in the academic tradition, and Millet's treatment of it reflected his engagement with Dutch and Flemish genre traditions alongside the French academic approach. This figure study shows the combination of academic competence and direct observation that characterized his transitional period, the body rendered with a solidity and physical reality that anticipated his monumental peasant figures while remaining within the academic tradition's conventions for the unclothed human figure.
Technical Analysis
Millet's technique reveals his study of Old Master nude painting, with warm, sensuous flesh tones and soft, graduated modeling. The figure is rendered with solid, three-dimensional presence, while the landscape setting is painted with atmospheric breadth. The warm palette and tactile brushwork show the influence of Correggio and the Venetians.
Provenance
Adolph Edward Borie [1809-1880] and his wife, née Elizabeth Dundas McKean, Philadelphia; possibly purchased from Borie or at a sale by George C. Thomas, Philadelphia.[1] (M. Knoedler & Co, London, New York, and Paris), in 1905, and again on consignment in 1910;[2] sold 1910 to R. Horace Gallatin [1871-1948], New York; gift 1949 to NGA. [1] Lugt lists no Borie sale; the painting was not in the Thomas sale at Samuel Freeman, Philadelphia, 12-13 November 1924. [2] Knoedler dates confirmed by Robert L. Herbert in a letter dated 15 November 1973 in NGA curatorial files.
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