Three Bathers

Three Bathers (c.1879) at the Petit Palais in Paris has an exceptional provenance: it was purchased by Henri Matisse from Ambroise Vollard in 1899 and kept for nearly four decades as one of his most treasured possessions. When Matisse finally donated it to the Musée de la Ville de Paris in 1936, he wrote to the director: 'Allow me to tell you that this picture is of the first importance in the work of Cézanne because it is a very dense and very complete realization of a composition that he carefully considered in several studies, studies that culminate in this definitive canvas. I have owned this canvas for 37 years and I know it fairly well, I hope, though not entirely; it has sustained me morally in the critical moments of my career as an artist.' This declaration of dependence on Cézanne is among the most significant statements by any modern artist about the generative power of a predecessor's work, and it gives this 1879 canvas its extraordinary historical significance.

The three figures are arranged in a compact triangular grouping within a shallow landscape setting, their forms echoing the rounded masses of the trees and the curved surface of the water behind them. The constructive brushstroke is fully developed here, each stroke simultaneously modeling form and establishing its spatial orientation.