Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2017.

Bather and Rocks

Artist Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1860-1866

MediumOil on canvas, transferred from plaster

Dimensions66 × 41 1/2 in. (167.6 × 105.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 77 1/4 × 52 3/8 × 4 in. (196.2 × 133 × 10.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.505

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 217

Label TextPaul Cézanne French, 1839–1906 Bather and Rocks, ca. 1860–66 Oil on canvas, transferred from plaster Although it looks like a complete work, Bather and Rocks is a section of a much larger mural. At the time he painted it, Paul Cézanne was living in an 18th-century mansion in southern France. The artist covered a wall of its grand salon with a landscape that included this figure in the foreground. In 1907, the year after Cézanne’s death, this portion of the painting was detached from the wall, transferred to canvas, and sold. Even as a fragment, Bather and Rocks is a work of remarkable power and vigor. Painted with an almost violent energy, the heavily muscled nude faces a massive rock, which he seems to be holding up against the force of the rushing water. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.505 Catalogue raisonnéFeilchenfeldt, Walter, Jayne Warman, and David Nash. "Le Baigneur au rocher, 1867–69 (possibly earlier) (FWN 900)." The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné.ProvenanceThe artist, Jan de Bouffan (near Aix-en-Provence), ca. 1864/68-1899; Louis Granel, Jas de Bouffan, 1899-1907; Josse Hessel, Paris, 1907; Georges Bernheim, Paris; Alphonse Kahn, Saint-Germain-en-Laye; seized by Germans in October 1940 and stored at Jeu de Paume, Paris, registered by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg as KA 1096, scheduled for transfer to Nikolsburg on August 1, 1944 but train never left Paris, restituted to Alphonse Kann in London on July 11, 1947; Paul Rosenberg and Co., New York, by 1952; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York by 1955; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum of Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition History"Cézanne," Art Institute of Chicago, 1942. "Cézanne. Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings," Art Institute of Chicago and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1952. (Exh. cat. no. 3, p. 14). "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. (Exhib. cat. no. 76). "Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville, June 12 - Sept. 5, 1977. (Exhib. cat. no. 40). "Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk," for the benefit of The Chrysler Museum Art Reference Library, Wildenstein & Co., New York, N. Y., April 13 - May 13, 1978. (Exhib. cat. no. 26). "French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum," North Carolina Museum of Art, May 31 - Sept. 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Nov. 6, 1986 - Jan. 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 32). "Cézanne," Grand Palais, Paris, September 26, 1995 - January 1, 1996; Tate Gallery, London, February 7, - April 28, 1996; Philadelphia Museum of Art, May 30 - September 1, 1996. "Cézanne and the Dawn of Modern Art," Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, September 18, 2004 - January 16, 2005. "Cézanne, Les Ateliers du midi," Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy, October 22, 2011 - February 26, 2012; National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan, March 28 - June 11, 2012. "Le Grand Atelier du Midi," Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 13 - October 13, 2013. “Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism,” Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France, June 25 – October 16, 2016; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, November 14, 2016 – March 5, 2017; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, April 9 – July 9, 2017. "Afterlives: Resistance and Recovery of Looted Art during the Second World War," The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, August 20, 2021 - January 9, 2022. “Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan,” Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 28 - October 12, 2025.Published ReferencesA Loan Exhibition Catalogue. _Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings_. The Art Institute of Chicago and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1952: p. 14, no. 3. Bertina S. Manning. _Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.: An Exhibition Organized by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon_. Portland: Portland Art Association. 1956. No. 76. *See for further references. Richard W. Murphy and the Editors of Time-Life Books. _The World of Cézanne, 1839-1906_. New York: Time-Life Books. 1968: p. 37, ill. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Treasures from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk and Walter P. Chrysler, Jr._. Tennessee Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville. 1977. No. 40. *See for further references. Eric M. Zafran and Mario Amaya. _Veronese to Franz Kline: Masterworks from the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum. 1978. No. 26, p. 30. *See for further references. Mario Amaya. "Contrasts and Comparisons in French Nineteenth Century Painting," _Apollo_. 107: 194. 04/1978: pp. 16-25, ill. Dore Ashton. _A Fable of Modern Art_. London: Thames and Hudson Limited. 1980: illustration no. 5. Chrysler Museum. _Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Chrysler Museum_. Norfolk, VA: Chrysler Museum of Art. 1982: p. 58. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986: 64, no. 32. *See for further references. Lawrence Gowing. _Cézanne: The Early Years 1859-1872_. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 1988: 6, fig. 3. Norio Shimada. "Cézanne," _Asahi Graph Special Issue_. 12/1988: no. 22. Michael Howard. _Cézanne_. London: Bison Books Ltd. 1990: 27, ill. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum. 1991. 116, #91. "Cézanne: Le film de l'exposition" by Jean-Paul Fargier. Produced by Le Reunion des musees nationaux, le Musee d'Orsay, and Les Films d'Ici Communimage with the participation of Centre National de la Cinematographie. Paris, 1995. Color video, 26 minutes. Francois Cachin, et al., _Cézanne_. Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1995, 95-97, color ill., 97. Paul Smith, _Interpreting Cézanne_. London: Tate Publishing, 1996, 33, color ill. 32. Amy Fine Collins. "Cézanne of Desire," _Vanity Fair_. No. 427. 03/1996: 168-205; 204, ill. John Rewald, in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman, _The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné_ Volume 1 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996), plate 6, cat. 29. Pierre Daix, "Pour Une Histoire Culturelle De L'Art Moderne," (Paris: EDITIONS ODILE JACOB, 1998). Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Modern Art comes to the Metropolitan: The 1921 exhibition of 'Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings'," _Apollo_. Vol. CLII, no. 464. 10/2000:pp. 3-12; appendix #3. Kathryn A. Tuma, "Cézanne and Lucretius at the Red Rock," _Representations_ 78 (University of California Press, Spring 2002): 56-85, 75 ill., fig. 2. Felix A. Baumann, Walter Feilchenfeldt, and Hubertus Gaßner, editors, _Cézanne: Aufbruch in die Moderne_, exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 2004, 58, 230. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 39, fig. 35. Denis Coutagne, Maryline Assante diPanzillo, Michel Fraisset, Phillipe Cezanne, Mitsue Nagaya, and Koji Kudo, _Cezanne. Paris-Provence_(Tokyo: Nikkei Inc., 2012), 42. Henri Bovet, ed. _Le Grand Atelier du Midi_ (Paris: La réunion des musées nationaux, 2013) 171. Denis Coutagne, ed. _Courbet/Cézanne: La vérité en peinture_ (Lyon, France: Fage éditions, 2013) 31. Hilaire, Michel and Paul Perrin, editors. _Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism_ (Paris: Flamarion, 2016), 142, fig. 89. André Dombrowski, ed., _Cézanne in the Barnes Foundation_ (New York: Rizzoli, 2021) 294, fig. 1. Denis Coutagne, ed.,_Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan_(Aix-en-Provence: Grand Palais, 2025) p.96, cat.40.