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The Bath

A work made of pastel, with fabricated black chalk and stumping on tan wove paper, edge mounted on millboard.

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  • A work made of pastel, with fabricated black chalk and stumping on tan wove paper, edge mounted on millboard.

Date:

1905

Artist:

Suzanne Valadon
French, 1865-1938

About this artwork

While she received little formal artistic training, Suzanne Valadon had many opportunities to observe artists at work as she modelled for painters such as Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Valadon’s experiences as an artist’s model informed her own renderings of female subjects, whom she portrayed sympathetically and realis- tically as they engage in everyday domestic activities. The Bath is one such deliberately rough and unidealized scene: a young girl bathes with the help of her grandmother. Despite their physical intimacy, the child looks away, her icy blue stare complicating the nurturing relationship a viewer might expect from this type of scene.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Suzanne Valadon

Title

The Bath

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1905

Medium

Pastel, with fabricated black chalk and stumping on tan wove paper, edge mounted on millboard

Dimensions

68.5 × 54.8 cm (27 × 21 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Shapiro

Reference Number

1996.640

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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