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Lot Essay
The Bathers has often been overlooked, despite its astonishing radicality. It is admittedly only in the first and only life-time state that its charm and atmospheric qualities are apparent - and fine, early impressions such as the present example are rare. On this sheet from the Carlyon collection the light plate tone, wiping marks and finely modulated lines give cohesion to the rather loose design, and imbue the scene with air and light, suggestive of a sunny afternoon by a swimming hole or canal.
As Tom Rassieur remarked, The Bathers could at once be seen as a genre scene, a landscape and a study sheet (see: Ackley, 2004, p. 271). As a landscape, it is certainly one of the sparsest compositions in Rembrandt's printed oeuvre, rivalling in this aspect Six's Bridge (see lot 36). Rassieur also suggested that Rembrandt may have sketched the scene directly onto the etching plate, en plein air, as he sat down by the water's edge. This seems very plausible indeed, given the wonderfully spontaneous, quick and unfinished manner with which the plate has been executed. This, as much as any of Rembrandt's prints, is a drawing on copper. As an unidealized depiction of bathers, it is a precursor to Cezanne bathers (fig. 1), but also to the works of the Brücke artists, Heckel, Kirchner, Mueller and Pechstein, who spent their summers around 1910 by the Moritzburg Lakes near Dresden or on the Baltic Sea - drawing, painting and bathing.
As Tom Rassieur remarked, The Bathers could at once be seen as a genre scene, a landscape and a study sheet (see: Ackley, 2004, p. 271). As a landscape, it is certainly one of the sparsest compositions in Rembrandt's printed oeuvre, rivalling in this aspect Six's Bridge (see lot 36). Rassieur also suggested that Rembrandt may have sketched the scene directly onto the etching plate, en plein air, as he sat down by the water's edge. This seems very plausible indeed, given the wonderfully spontaneous, quick and unfinished manner with which the plate has been executed. This, as much as any of Rembrandt's prints, is a drawing on copper. As an unidealized depiction of bathers, it is a precursor to Cezanne bathers (fig. 1), but also to the works of the Brücke artists, Heckel, Kirchner, Mueller and Pechstein, who spent their summers around 1910 by the Moritzburg Lakes near Dresden or on the Baltic Sea - drawing, painting and bathing.