Le Bain de la Princesse
Artist
Louis Paul Henri Sérusier
(French, 1864 - 1927)
CultureFrench
Date1898
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions44 × 71 in. (111.8 × 180.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 47 3/4 × 74 in. (121.3 × 188 cm)
Overall, Frame: 47 3/4 × 74 in. (121.3 × 188 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.2725
Not on view
DescriptionOil on canvas painting.Label TextLouis Paul Henri Sérusier French, 1864–1927 Le Bain de la Princesse, 1898 Oil on canvas Who is the princess? Is there more than just a bath going on here? Why is there a little alligator to the right? These mysteries were part and parcel of the symbolist movement in French art that linked Paris-born Sérusier to painters working in Pont-Aven on the Brittany coast who called themselves the “Nabis” (Hebrew for “prophets”). Sérusier and the Nabis were inspired by Paul Gauguin, whose equally disturbing and enigmatic Loss of Virginity is also in this gallery. The Nabis replaced the unmediated realism of their Impressionist forebears with flat, outlined shapes and unrealistically bright colors. The distant view to the right is an example of how Sérusier converted the broken painterly Impressionist brushstroke into an atmospheric device that heightened the dazzling mysteriousness of his confounding composition. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2725Provenanceby 1954, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris; 1954, collection Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. (from Durand-Ruel, for 150,000FF); 1971, CMA, gift of WPC, Jr.
