Bather With Outstretched Arms (recto); Study of a Tree (verso)

Bather With Outstretched Arms (recto); Study of a Tree (verso) by Paul Cézanne French, 1839–1906, is a vital double-sided preparatory sheet dating from the period 1874-1877. This drawing, executed in graphite on cream laid paper that has been pieced together, evidences the artist’s working process as he refined the foundational themes of his Post-Impressionist career. As a classification, this intimate drawing provides a direct look at the formal and conceptual problems Cézanne was attempting to resolve in the crucial decade following his early encounters with Impressionism in France.

The recto features the Bather With Outstretched Arms, a figure study that anticipates Cézanne's famous later ensembles of nude bathers in the landscape. This subject allowed the artist to move beyond anecdotal representation, focusing instead on establishing volumetric mass and spatial depth through line and subtle value shifts. The figure is rendered with broad outlines and restrained shading, emphasizing geometric structure over realistic detail-a hallmark of Cézanne's approach to the human form. Throughout the 1870s, Cézanne explored the bather motif, aiming to reconcile the classical tradition of the nude with a modern, structural rigor.

Conversely, the verso presents a Study of a Tree, executed with the same rigorous, exploratory graphite marks. This juxtaposition of the figure and the natural world highlights the two major pillars of Cézanne’s artistic investigation: the structure of the human body and the fundamental structure of the landscape. The rapid, economical lines used for the tree study emphasize the underlying geometric relationships in nature. This important dual-sided piece, revealing the artist’s commitment to disciplined observation and formal experimentation, is maintained within the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.