Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-cezanne-879" aria-label="More by Paul Cezanne" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Paul Cezanne</a>
Large Bathers
Presented by Lord Duveen 1927
actions: postures and motions
adults
landscape
male
man
mountain
nudes
people
reclining
rocky
standing
tree
paper print lithograph
1 March 2003 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2 April 2003 – 31 May 2003
2003-05-31
2003-04-02
Drawing Center (New York, USA)
18 June 2003 – 24 August 2003
2003-08-24
2003-06-18
Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, Australia)
26 September 2003 – 28 March 2004
2004-03-28
2003-09-26
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
29 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-01
The Stage of Drawing: Gesture and Act Selected from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
2007-09-15
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2007-09-15
Bathers
Collection based display
29 September 2018 – 13 January 2019
2019-01-13
29 September 2018 – 13 January 2019
2019-01-13
2018-09-29
The Lightbox (Woking, UK)
http://www.thelightbox.org/
2018-09-29
French Impressionism and Post Impressionism: Art of the Everyday
Loan-out
5 October 2022 – 12 March 2023
2023-03-12
5 October 2022 – 12 March 2023
2023-03-12
2022-10-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2022-10-05
The EY Exhibition: Cezanne
Exhibition
21 June 2025 – 5 October 2025
2025-10-05
21 June 2025 – 5 October 2025
2025-10-05
2025-06-21
Musée Granet (Aix-en-Provence, France)
2025-06-21
Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan
Loan-out
The Large Bathers
image: 410 × 507 mm
frame: 603 × 684 × 25 mm
support: 570 × 650 mm
Presented by Lord Duveen 1927
<p><b>Paul Cézanne</b><span> 1839-1906 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cezanne-the-large-bathers-p01008" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P01008</span></a> </span><b>Les Grands Baigneurs</b><span> (Large Bathers) 1896-</span><i>c</i><span>.1898</span>
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<p><span>Signed 'P. Cézanne' in the print itself b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Colour lithograph, 16 1/4 x 20 1/8 (41.3 x 51) on paper 17 ½ x 23 (44.5 x 58.5); the margins of this impression have been trimmed</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Lord Duveen 1927</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris; Lord Duveen, London</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Watercolour and Pencil Drawings by Cézanne</i><span>, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, September-November 1973 (85, repr.); Hayward Gallery, London, November-December 1973 (85, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Ambroise Vollard, </span><i>Recollections of a Picture Dealer</i><span>
(London 1936), pp.247-8; Lionello Venturi, </span><i>Cézanne: son Art - son Oeuvre</i><span>
(Paris 1936), No.1157, Vol.1, p.287, Alphonse Kann maquette repr. Vol.2, pl.332; Una E. Johnson, </span><i>Ambroise Vollard, Editeur, 1867-1939</i><span> (New York 1944), No.30, pp.15, 68-9, 193; Melvin Waldfogel, 'Caillebotte, Vollard and Cézanne's "Baigneurs au Repos"' in </span><i>Gazette des Beaux-Arts</i><span>, February 1965, pp.113-20, repr. p.114; Jean Cherpin, 'L'Oeuvre gravé de Cézanne' in </span><i>Arts et Livres de Provence: Bulletin No.82</i><span>, 1972, No.7, pp.47-58, 68-9, first state repr. p.53; Douglas W. Druick, 'Cézanne, Vollard and Lithography: the Ottawa Maquette for the "Large Bathers" Colour Lithograph' in </span><i>The National Gallery of Canada Bulletin</i><span>, 19/1972, 1974, pp.1-36, repr. p.8; Douglas Druick, 'Cézanne's Lithographs' in William Rubin (ed.), </span><i>Cézanne: the Late Work</i><span> (London 1978), pp.119-37, first state repr. p.125 </span>
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<p><span>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithograph</span></a> was made for the dealer Ambroise Vollard, who asked a number of artists who were not <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravers</span></a> by profession to make engravings for publication and published two large albums of miscellaneous <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> under the titles </span><i>Les Peintres-Graveurs and La Deuxième Année de l'Album d'Estampes originales de la Galerie Vollard</i><span>. In both cases the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> was limited to 100. The first album, issued in July 1896, contained twenty-two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a>, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/woodcut" title="Glossary definition for 'Woodcut'"><span>woodcuts</span></a> and lithographs by Bonnard, Denis, Fantin-Latour, Renoir, Vuillard and others. The second, published in December 1897, comprised thirty-two prints, including a colour lithograph by Cézanne of a small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of bathers (Venturi No.1156). The 'Large Bathers' was intended for inclusion in a third album, together with Cézanne's only other lithograph, a self-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> (Venturi No.1158). However neither of the first two albums sold very well, so the third series remained unfinished. </span>
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<p><span>Cézanne, who had had no previous experience of making lithographs and evidently agreed to undertake these on the insistence of Vollard, relied to a large extent on the expert help of the printer Auguste Clot. Both the colour lithographs of 'Bathers' were made in two stages. First he made a lithograph in black to serve as a keystone. Then he hand-coloured an impression in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> for the printer to follow in preparing the colour stones. Douglas W. Druick, on whose findings this entry is heavily dependent, has shown that whereas the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> for the 'Small Bathers' was done directly on the stone, that for the 'Large Bathers' was made on transfer <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> (as was the one for the 'Self-Portrait'). One of the reasons for this, apart from the fact that it was a much easier procedure, was that in making the 'Large Bathers' Cézanne was closely copying the composition of an earlier oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, the 'Bathers at Rest' (Venturi No.276, now in the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania). If he had drawn straight on to the stone, he would have had to reverse the composition for printing, whereas this was not necessary with the use of transfer paper. Three impressions hand-coloured by Cézanne are known: in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the collection of Mrs Florence Weil, St Louis, Missouri, and one formerly in the collection of Alphonse Kann, Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Clot appears to have used the one now in the National Gallery of Canada. </span>
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<p><span>The impressions apparently intended for the album all have an inscription 'Tirage à cent exemplaires no. | P. Cézanne' (with the numbers written in from 1 to 100) in the bottom right margin, but the Tate's print is without an inscription. Druick has shown that there were actually two different states of this colour lithograph, one with the inscription and one without, and that each was printed from a different set of colour stones. Moreover the inscribed and numbered state, which he believes to be the first, was printed from six colour stones (ochre, blue, orange, green, yellow, red), whereas the second was printed from only five (no orange). Thus although there are colour variations within the editions, the first printing is predominantly green in tonality, the other predominantly blue. There seem to be at least 100 impressions of both editions. The reasons for making a second edition are not recorded, but this may have been partly because some collectors objected to the rather obtrusive inscription on the original state; or else the two states can be regarded as alternative attempts, each successful in some respects and less so in others, to simulate Cézanne's handling of watercolour in terms of lithography. However it is also possible that the second edition was printed on Vollard's instructions after Cézanne's death, perhaps about 1914. There are also a few impressions in black and a number of trial proofs, including impressions without the blue stone. </span>
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<p><span>It has usually been assumed that the 'Large Bathers', being intended for Vollard's third album, was begun in late 1897 or 1898, but Druick has suggested that the first stage in black may precede the 'Small Bathers', which must have been made during Cézanne's stay in Paris from the autumn of 1896 until April 1897. It seems very likely that Cézanne would have made his first lithographs by the easy method of using transfer paper and then subsequently have gone on to draw directly on the stone. Also the black impressions of the 'Large Bathers' have the appearance of being finished works, whereas the black stage of the 'Small Bathers' is much sketchier and was obviously made as a frame-work for the colour. Druick concludes therefore that the 'Large Bathers' was begun before the 'Small Bathers' but as a lithograph in black; and that the success of the 'Small Bathers' colour lithograph (which received favourable comments when published) led Cézanne to turn it into a colour lithograph by hand-colouring impressions for the guidance of the printer. This would mean that the 'Large Bathers' was probably made over the period 1896-</span><i>c</i><span>.1898. </span>
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<p><span>Melvin Waldfogel has suggested that Cézanne's decision to make an exact copy of the composition of a much earlier painting the 'Bathers at Rest' of </span><i>c</i><span>.1876-7 was connected with the first public exhibition in 1897 of the collection of paintings, largely <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionist</span></a>, which Gustave Caillebotte had bequeathed to the French Government. Two of the paintings by Cézanne in the Caillebotte collection were accepted by the Government, and two rejected: one of those rejected was the 'Bathers at Rest'. Thus Cézanne, by making a version in colour lithography for widespread distribution, could be said to be both celebrating the official recognition of his work and rebuking the Government for its lack of judgement in refusing two of his pictures. Also it could be regarded as a tribute to Caillebotte, not only for having made the bequest but for having helped to finance the third Impressionist exhibition of 1877 in which 'Bathers at Rest' was shown for the first time. Druick points out however that the transfer drawing for the lithograph was probably executed before the opening of the Caillebotte exhibition early in 1897 and that, if Waldfogel's argument is correct, it is strange that the print was not included in the album published in December 1897, while the issue was still current. 'Bathers at Rest' may have been chosen simply because it was at that period Cbzanne's most famous work. Vollard, who may have had a say in the choice of subject, had already featured it in the window of his gallery during Cézanne's one-man exhibition of 1895. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.105-7, reproduced p.105</span>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults landscape male man mountain nudes people reclining rocky standing tree