Cinq baigneurs (Five Bathers)

Cinq baigneurs (Five Bathers) of 1877, now at the Musée d'Orsay, is a key work in Cézanne's early exploration of the multiple-figure bather composition, developed at the same moment as the Barnes Foundation five-figure canvas from the same year. The Orsay's holding of this canvas alongside its other major Cézannes allows visitors to trace the development of his bather project from these exploratory early versions through to the monumental Large Bathers. The 1877 date situates the work in the final phase of group Impressionism before Cézanne's definitive move toward solitary experiment in Provence.

The Orsay Five Bathers shows the characteristic qualities of Cézanne's bather work at this stage: figures treated with more conventional modeling than his later work while already departing from the smooth academic gradations of tonal painting in favor of a more faceted, varied brushstroke that begins to establish the planar logic of his mature approach.