Get Ready for Beach Season With These Artists’ Takes on Bathers, From Paul Cézanne to Eric Fischl, in a New Show in London

As an “ode to the ultimate summer muse,” London gallery Saatchi Yates has organized the exhibition “Bathers,” on view through August 10.

Artists have depicted this subject since Classical antiquity, showing mythical scenes like that of the hunter Actaeon stumbling on the goddess Diana bathing in the woods, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Venus emerging from her birthplace in the sea.

Explicitly exploring the more erotic dimensions of the subject, artists have depicted the scene of Susanna and the Elders, in which two old men spy on a young woman at her bath. The subject continues right up to the Cubist treatment of the figure by Picasso, who frequently depicted women at the beach, and contemporary images that address inclusion of the types of figures who have not appeared in traditional Western art. 

In the Saatchi Yates exhibition, historical artists from Paul Cézanne to Pablo Picasso and J.M.W. Turner treat the subject, as well as younger figures like Peter Doig, Eric Fischl, Sujin Lee, and Henry Taylor.

“Bathers in painting are both varied and fundamental to the human condition,” says the art critic Martin Gayford, who wrote an essay for the catalogue. “The combination of unclothed bodies and water can evoke guilt-free primordial innocence: a sin-free Eden. On the other hand, the same visual ingredients can suggest the consequences of Eve and Adam’s Fall: guilt, lust, death.”

“In either case, the subject combines in one neat package two of the major preoccupations of artists for many centuries—landscape and the nude,” Gayford continues. “It is no surprise that bathers have preoccupied painters for so long, and it is likely that the combination of water and human bodies will continue to intrigue them far into the future.”

Below, see some highlights of the show.

Denijs Van Alsloot, A Forest Landscape, with Diana Discovering Callisto’s Pregnancy, and a View of the Priory of Groenendael (1614). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

David Hockney, The Swimming Lesson (1965). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

Angela Santana, The Bathers (2023). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

An installation view of “Bathers.” Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

Sujin Lee, Night Swimming (2023). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

Joseph Werner the Younger, A Bacchanal (ca. 1662–1667). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

Peter Doig, The Bather (2017). Photo: courtesy of Saatchi Yates.

More Trending Stories:  

Is TikTok Trying to Cancel Salvador Dalí? Why Art Historians on the Platform Are Denouncing the ‘Problematic’ Surrealist Icon 

Why Andy Warhol’s ‘Prince’ Is Actually Bad, and the Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith Decision Is Actually Good 

The Art Angle Podcast: James Murdoch on His Vision for Art Basel and the Future of Culture 

Art Advisor Maria Vogel Hosts Art-Inspired Dinner Parties, Cherishes Handwritten Notes, and Keeps an Eye Out for Overlooked Women Artists 

A Palatial Home by Frank Lloyd Wright—With a Circular Design Echoing His Guggenheim Museum—Has Hit the Market for $8 Million 

Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, and Other ‘Asteroid City’ Stars Respond to the Viral Wes Anderson TikTok Trend With Their Own Parody 

A British Couple Actually Paid Nearly $250,000 to Remove a Banksy Mural From Their Building Due to the ‘Extremely Stressful’ Upkeep 

Archaeologists in Hungary Have Uncovered the Remains of an Ancient Roman Doctor Alongside His Surgical Toolkit 

The World’s First A.I.-Generated Statue, Cobbling Together the Styles of Five Celebrated Sculptors, Has Landed in a Swedish Museum 

Meet the Young Collectors Calling the Shots at the Guggenheim, a Highly Placed Art Worlder’s Anti-Woke Tweets, and More Art World Gossip 

An Extraordinary Wristwatch Belonging to the Last Emperor of China Just Sold for $6.2 Million, Setting Multiple Auction Records 

A Sculpture Depicting King Tut as a Black Man Is Sparking International Outrage 

Archaeologists Have Found a 3,000-Year-Old Bakery in Armenia, After Realizing a Layer of Ash Was Actually Wheat Flour 

Why the Supreme Court’s Decision in the Andy Warhol Copyright Case Shows the Dangers of a Sympathy Vote 

An Exhibition of Taylor Swift’s Stuff Has Just Opened at the Museum of Arts and Design. Here Are 5 Must-See Displays, Swifties 

Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.