Preparing for the Bath

Preparing for the Bath, painted in 1900, depicts the anticipatory moment before bathing rather than the act itself—a subject that allowed Godward to explore the female figure in a state of partial undress while maintaining the classical propriety that distinguished his work from more overtly erotic contemporary treatments of the female nude. The preparatory moment, in which drapery is being removed and the body composed for immersion, had a long tradition in Western art from Susanna and the Elders onward, and Godward's version translated this tradition into his Neo-Classical archaeological setting.

The transitional moment of preparation is captured through the figure's posture of self-arrangement, Godward rendering the partially displaced drapery with particular care to convey both the fabric's material properties and the figure's physical relationship to it. The cool marble setting and the warm figure create the characteristic temperature contrast of his bath subjects.