The Bathers, large plate (Les baigneurs, grand planche)

"The Bathers, large plate (Les baigneurs, grand planche)" is a significant lithograph created by Paul Cézanne in 1896. This work, classified as a print, encapsulates the French artist's intense, late-career preoccupation with constructing stable, enduring forms within the natural world.

Cézanne’s repeated engagement with the Bathers motif, dating back decades, reached its structural peak around the 1896-97 period. The execution of this large-format print demonstrates how the artist translated his painterly investigations of volume, space, and composition into the medium of lithography. This graphic work is essential for understanding Cézanne's contribution to Modernism, as he treats the nude figures not as objects of classical idealization but as formal elements, simplified and almost geometric, helping anchor the scene.

The composition is characterized by a deliberate, carefully balanced arrangement. Figures are clustered in triangular groupings along the riverbank, framed by the dramatically arching trees that dominate the upper half of the piece. Cézanne used this complex structure to synthesize the fleeting visual observations of Impressionism with the classical demands for solidity and order. The subtle variations in tone and line quality, inherent to the lithograph process, highlight the artist's masterful deployment of light and shadow, demonstrating his unique approach to structuring the visual plane. This monumental study of figures and landscape, central to the artist's legacy and the transition from 19th-century traditions, is preserved in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The accessibility of prints like this ensures Cézanne’s influential compositions remain cornerstones of art historical study.