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A group of young men swim in the water, relax in the grass, and wrestle.

A group of young men in their bathing suits are swimming in a body of water located in the foreground of the scene. On the right-hand side of the foreground, one man is pulling another out of the water, and on the left, a man leans against a tree. A man relaxing in the grass is watching two people wrestling. In the background, a man is removing his shirt and tossing his jacket in a pile of clothing on the ground. There are several tall, thin trees in the scene, and the sky is bright blue with a few clouds.

Gallery Text

When this painting was first exhibited at the Salon of 1870, critic and artist Zacharie Astruc wrote of Bazille, “The sun inundates his canvases.” It appears that Bazille began this composition in his Paris studio but completed the details of the landscape after traveling to the south of France, where he painted a similar landscape of the river Lez. Although individual figures have been identified as derivations from Italian Renaissance sources, including Andrea Mantegna and Sebastiano del Piombo, the inspiration for the subject may have been the modernist novel Manette Salomon (1867), in which the Goncourt brothers describe a brilliantly lit scene of young men bathing. The artist, one of the most important and influential exponents of the “new painting” that gave rise to impressionism, died in the Franco-Prussian War, four years before the first impressionist exhibition was held.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.78
People
Jean Frédéric Bazille, French (Montpelier 1841 - 1870 Beaune-la-Rolande)
Title
Summer Scene (Bathers)
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Scene d'Ete / Les Baigneurs
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1869-1870
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230640

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2700, European and American Art, 19th century, Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
160 x 160.7 cm (63 x 63 1/4 in.)
frame: 192.1 x 192.4 x 12.4 cm (75 5/8 x 75 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: F. Bazille, 1869

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
The family of Jean Frédéric Bazille [probably Marc Bazille, his brother], by descent; to Mr. and Mrs. Jules-François Meynier de Salinelles, Montpellier gift [1]; to Fogg Art Museum, 1937.

Notes
[1] Mme de Salinelles was a niece of the artist and the daughter of Marc Bazille.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. F. Meynier de Salinelles
Accession Year
1937
Object Number
1937.78
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • [Unidentified article], L'Amour de l'Art (January 1927), p. 26
  • G. Poulain, Bazille et ses amis (Paris, France, 1932), no. 36, pp. 152, 171, 176, 218
  • "A Painting by Bazille", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, November 1937), vol. VII, no. 1, p. 15, repr.
  • "Cambridge: Gift of a Painting by a Rare Impressionist, Bazille", Art News (November 27, 1937), vol. XXXVI, no. 9, p. 19
  • [Unidentified article], Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA, November 20, 1937), repr.
  • "Bazille Painting for Fogg", Art Digest (June 1938), p. 19
  • Ernst Scheyer, "The Beginnings of Impressionism", The Art Quarterly (Spring 1942), pp. 127-128, ill. p. 124
  • John Rewald, The History of Impressionism [1st ed.], The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1946), p. 196, repr. p. 199
  • Bernard Dorival, "La Scene d'Eté de Bazille et Cezanne", Musées de France (May 1949), vol. IV, pp. 94-96
  • François Daulte, Frederic Bazille et son temps, Pierre Cailler (Geneva, Switzerland, 1952), no. 44, pp. 133, 184, repr.
  • Anne V. Dort, "French Art of the 19th Century", Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Bulletin (Boston, MA, 1958 -1959), no. 21, pp. 1316-1317
  • John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art, Henry Holt and Co. (New York, NY, 1959), p. 224-225, repr. in b/w as fig. 260
  • Pierre Courthion, Au Temps de l'Impressionisme, Nouvelles Editions Françaises (Paris, France, 1964), repr. in color no. 25
  • Kermit S. Champa, "The Genesis of Impressionism" (Thesis, Harvard University, 1964), Unpublished
  • Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, 1967), n.p.
  • Gerd Muehsam, ed., French Painters and Paintings from the 14th Century to Post-Impressionism, Ungar (New York, NY, 1970), pp. 491-493, repr.
  • Pierre Courthion, Impressionism, part of The Library of Great Art Movements, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1972), p. 166, repr. in color
  • Kermit S. Champa, Studies in Early Impressionism, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 1973), pp. 89-90, plate 23
  • John Rewald, The History of Impressionism [4th ed.], The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1973), p. 234
  • Franz Schulze, "Frederic Bazille: 'Lost Impressionist' ", Art in America (September 1978 - October 1978), p. 101 repr. in color, p. 102 text
  • F. Daulte and J. Patrice Marandel, Frederic Bazille and Early Impressionism, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1978), no. 43, p. 95, text and repr. in b/w
  • Diane Kelder, The Great Book of French Impressionism, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), color plate 18
  • John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art [2nd ed.], Holt, Rinehart & Winston (New York, NY, 1981), repr. in b/w fig 309, p. 260
  • Yann Le Pichon, Les Peintres du Bonheur, Robert Laffont (Paris, France, 1983), repr. in b/w, p. 112
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, repr. in color, fig. 15, p. 30
  • Yann Le Pichon, Sur les Traces de Gauguin, Robert Laffont (Paris, France, 1986), detail repr. in b/w p. 78
  • Denis Thomas, The Age of the Impressionists, St Michael, Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. (London, England, 1987), repr. in color, p. 118
  • Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Impressionism, Bison Books (London, England, 1988), pp. 26-27, ill.
  • Therese Dolan, "Frederic Bazille and the Goncourt Brothers' Manette Salomon", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (February 1990), repr. b/w fig. 3, p. 101; text p. 101
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 75, color plate; pp. 98, 240, repr. b/w cat. no. 328
  • John Russell Taylor, Impressionist Dreams, Little, Brown & Company (Boston, MA, 1990), repr. as fig. 1 (frontispiece)
  • Nobuo Abe, The Great History of Art: Impressionism (Tokyo, Japan, 1990 - 1991), repr. in color p. 70
  • Bernard Denvir, Impressionism, the Painters and the Paintings, Studio Editions (London, England, 1991), repr. in color fig. 132, p. 142
  • Michael Kimmelman, "A Tragic Harbinger of the New", The New York Times (New York, NY, November 13, 1992), repr. in b/w
  • François-Bernard Michel, Bazille: 1841-1870, Bernard Grasset (Paris, France, 1992), repr. in b/w (n.p.)
  • Musée Fabre, Bazille: Traces et Lieux de la Creation, exh. cat., Musée Fabre (Montpellier, France, 1992), repr. in b/w no. 23, p. 23
  • François Daulte, Frederic Bazille et les Debuts de l'Impressionisme, La Bibliothèque des Arts (Paris, France, 1992), repr. p. 149, text p. 150
  • Frederic Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism, exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY, 1992), repr. p. 76, p. 118; text p. 119, catalog no. 25
  • Ingo F. Walther, Malerei des Impressionismus, 1860-1920, Benedikt Taschen Verlag (Köln, Germany, 1992), repr. in color, p. 75
  • Colin B. Bailey, "Bazille: 'The Astonishing Fullness of Light' ", Apollo (March 1993), p. 185
  • Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, NY, 1993), repr. b/w fig. 2, p. 104; mentioned p. 104
  • Francis Frascina, Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the 19th Century, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1993), repr. b/w p. 176; text p. 174
  • Pascal Bonafoux, Les Plaisirs et les Jours, Editions Herscher (Paris, France, 1994), p. 46, repr. in color p. 47
  • Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrette, Origins of Impressionism, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1994), pp. 274-275, repr. in color fig. 337
  • Michel Schulman, Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870: Catalogue raisonné, Éditions de l'amateur and Éditions des Catalogues raisonnés (Paris, 1995), pp. 199-202, repr. as cat. 55 on p. 199
  • Éric de Chassey, L'impressionnisme, Scala (Paris, 1995), repr. on p. 30
  • Robert Boardingham, Impressionist Masterpieces in American Museums, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1996), pp. 34-5
  • Doreen Bolger, ed., Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture, exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1996), pp. 87-88
  • Kermit S. Champa and Dianne W. Pitman, Monet & Bazille: A Collaboration, High Museum of Art / Harry Abrams (Atlanta, GA / New York, NY, 1998), Pp. 75-77
  • Nancy Locke, Manet and the Family Romance, Princeton University Press (Princeton and Oxford, 2001), p. 175; repr. in b/w as fig. 97, p. 178
  • Norma Broude, ed., Gustave Caillebotte and the Fashioning of Identity in Impressionist Paris, Rutgers University Press (New Jersey, 2002), pp. 154-174, repr. in b/w as fig. 55
  • Margaret Werth, The Joy of Life: the idyllic in French art, circa 1900, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA, 2002), repr. p. 157 as fig. 71
  • Nancy Locke, "Cezanne's Bathers, Watteau, and the Idea of Fantasy", Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts (2003), vol. 77, no. 1/2, pp. 18-31, p. 28, repr. as fig. 13
  • Richard R. Brettell, "Eakins and the Male Nude in French Art, 1850-1890", exh. cat., Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME, 2004), pp. 24-37; repr. in color, p. 38; checklist, p. 145
  • Randall Griffin, Homer, Eakins and Anschutz: The Search for American Identity in the Gilded Age, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA, 2004), pp. 77-80, repr. in b/w as fig. 33
  • Henri Loyrette, L'Art francais: le XIXeme siècle, Flammarion (Paris, France, 2006), repr. as fig. 69, p. 252
  • Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, Pearson Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006), pp. 404-407, ill. p. 405
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 158, rep.
  • Sebastian Smee, A Summer Sojourn in the South of France. Frame by Frame. Unearthing Hidden Treasures in the Collections of New England Museums, The Boston Globe, section G, page 5, November 13, 2012, section G, page 5, reproduced in color
  • Gloria Groom, Françoise Tétart-Vittu, and Phillipe Thiébaut, L'impressionnisme Et La Mode, exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay (Paris, 2013), pp.200-201; repr. as fig.16 on p.207
  • Michel Hilaire and Paul Perrin, Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and the Birth of Impressionism, exh. cat., Flammarion (Paris, 2016), pp. 18-19, 39-43, 104, 138-144, 152, 165, 188, 203, 213, 248, cat. no. 53, fig. 86 repr. p. 18, 43, 139, 248, and end page
  • Kathleen Adler, "[Review] Frédéric Bazille", The Burlington Magazine (June 2017), Vol. CLIX, No. 1375, pp. 502-503, pp. 502-503, repr. p. 502
  • Peter Schjeldahl, "[Review] Second Impressions: Frédéric Bazille's Brief Career Reconsidered", The New Yorker (April 17, 2017), pp. 74-75, repr.
  • "Friendly Exchanges - Van Gogh and More", Index Magazine ([e-journal], May 30, 2018), https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/friendly-exchanges-van-gogh-and-more, accessed August 15, 2018
  • Esther Bell and George T.M. Shackelford, ed., Renoir: The Body, The Senses, exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Kimbell Art Museum, and Yale University Press (Williamstown, 2019), p. 78
  • Margaret Middleton, "Queer Possibility", Journal of Museum Education (December 2020), vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 426-436, p. 426, fig. 1
  • Michel Schulman, Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870: The Digital Catalogue Raisonné (https://www.bazille-catalogue.com/, April 2022), repr.

Exhibition History

  • Annual Exhibition, 1870, Salon, Paris, Paris, 01/01/1870 - 12/31/1870
  • Retrospective Bazille, Salon, Paris, Paris, 08/01/1910 - 12/31/1910
  • Retrospective Bazille, Exposition Internationale, Montpellier, 01/01/1927 - 12/31/1927
  • Modern French Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 11/15/1937 - 12/15/1937
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Word's Fair, 1940, World's Fair, 1940, New York, 01/01/1940 - 12/31/1940
  • Exposition Organisee au profit du Musee de Montpellier, Galerie Wildenstein, Paris, 06/01/1950 - 06/30/1950
  • French Art of the 19th Century, Symphony Hall, Boston, 03/24/1959 - 04/24/1959
  • Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 10/12/1967 - 12/03/1967
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Frederic Bazille and Early Impressionism, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 03/04/1978 - 04/30/1978
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/21/1985 - 01/05/1986
  • Frederic Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 07/11/1992 - 10/04/1992; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, 11/12/1992 - 01/24/1993; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, 02/14/1993 - 04/25/1993
  • Les origines de l'Impressionnisme, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 04/19/1994 - 08/08/1994; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Drawings and Prints, New York, 09/14/1994 - 01/08/1995
  • Origins of Impressionism, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 04/19/1994 - 08/08/1994; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 09/19/1994 - 01/08/1995
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000
  • European Muses, American Masters: 1870 to 1950, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, 06/23/2004 - 10/17/2004
  • Re-View: S427 Impressionist & Postimpressionist Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/02/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2700 Impressionism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 06/30/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/14/2017 - 01/01/2050
  • Frédéric Bazille et la naissance de l'impressionnisme, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, 06/25/2016 - 10/16/2016; Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 11/15/2016 - 03/05/2017; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 04/09/2017 - 07/09/2017

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu