Skip to main content

Gallery 264, European Art 1850-1900, second floor (Women´s Committee Gallery)

Main Building

Museum map

The Large Bathers

1900-1906
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
This is the largest, the last, and in many ways, the most ambitious work from Cézanne’s lifelong exploration of the time-honored theme of nudes in a landscape. It is also, perhaps, in its unfinished state, the purest and most serene witness to the man whom Paul Gauguin described as spending “entire days on mountaintops reading Virgil,” dreaming of wooded glades populated with beautiful figures who, if not exactly participants in a narrative as such, are full of animation and interaction. Perhaps it is its grand nobility—its authority as something beyond time, “like art in the museums,” as Cézanne said—that made it so attractive to many artists.

Gallery 264, European Art 1850-1900, second floor (Women´s Committee Gallery)

Object Details

We are always open to learning more about our collections and updating the website. Does this record contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Contact us here.

Please note that this particular artwork might not be on view when you visit. Don’t worry—we have plenty of exhibitions for you to explore.

Gallery 264, European Art 1850-1900, second floor (Women´s Committee Gallery)

Main Building

Museum map