The Bathers
1882
Medium
Black and white chalk on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
12 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. (32.1 x 49.8 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.113
Tags
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer's *The Bathers* (2) captures a moment of quiet leisure in delicate black and white chalk on-white wove paper, 12⅝ × 19⅝ inches. This intimate drawing, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's American Wing, showcases Homer's masterful command of line and tone. As a leading figure in American Realism, Homer often depicted everyday scenes of American life with unvarnished honesty, and here he turns his gaze to women bathing—a motif evoking vulnerability, nature, and the simple joys of summer. Created during Homer's transitional years in the early 1880s, when he increasingly ret...
About the Artist
Winslow Homer · 1836–1910
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was one of America's greatest painters and a preeminent figure in 19th-century American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career as a commercial illustrator and Civil War correspondent for Harper's Weekly before becoming renowned for his powerful marine subjects and landscape paintings. His mastery of both oil and watercolor, combined with his uncompromising reali...