Bathers

This Bathers of 1912—held at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and distinct from the identically dated Badende Frauen—suggests Klinger was working through the bathing women subject in multiple canvases simultaneously, a practice common among artists exploring a compositional type through variations. The Wallraf-Richartz Museum is one of Germany's great repositories of painting from the medieval through the early twentieth century, and its holding of a Klinger confirms his importance in the German tradition. The bathers subject in 1912 placed Klinger in implicit dialogue with Cézanne's major bathers series, receiving increasing critical attention since the 1906 Salon d'Automne retrospective. However, Klinger's approach remained rooted in academic figure tradition rather than Cézanne's structural decomposition of form.

Oil on canvas with Klinger's mature academic handling of the outdoor figure. The body's solidity is maintained even in an aquatic setting where Impressionist painters allowed form to dissolve into light.