The Bathers

The Bathers of 1900 at the Art Institute of Chicago belongs to Cézanne's late phase, when his bather compositions had become maximally ambitious in scale and philosophical aspiration. Unlike his earlier single-figure studies, this canvas presents the bather subject as a metaphysical meditation on the relationship between human beings and the natural world—the figures' bodies taking on the permanence and weight of geological form while remaining unmistakably human. The Art Institute holds this late example alongside several other Cézanne works that allow viewers to trace his development.

The late bathers are handled with a freedom of facture that pushes beyond the systematic constructive stroke of his middle period toward a more open, expressive paint application, with areas of unpainted canvas left as part of the composition. The figures' forms are barely distinguished from the landscape elements surrounding them, color and plane unifying human and natural worlds.