The Bath

This drawing relates to Félix Bracquemond’s interest in integrating various artistic techniques, a practice that became increasingly common around 1900. With a range of black and white media, the artist depicted a nude in a forest pool. Faint gridding was used to transfer the image either to or from a similar enamel and a print. An important part of this working process, the drawing was included in both of the major exhibitions of Bracquemond’s oeuvre during his life. From one of these displays, in 1907, Bracquemond sold it to Parisian collector Alfred Beurdeley, who acquired hundreds of drawings with the aim of representing the art of his time.