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Topics

Bathing and toilet

  • Summary
Bathers (Étaples)
Image credit: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Bathers (Étaples)

Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935)

The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Since the ancient Greeks, artists have painted and sculpted naked figures, usually women, bathing or washing. The nude has long been considered an ideal of beauty, but figures from classical mythology, including Venus and Diana and her nymphs, and even subjects from the Bible, such as Bathsheba bathing and Susannah and the Elders, appealed to voyeuristic and erotic instincts.


Even in the more puritanical nineteenth century, William Etty’s work was controversial for its realism, not for its subject matter.

Read more
The Impressionists’ interest in private lives, as seen in the distinctive approaches of Degas and Sickert, ignored the public taste of the time. Henry Scott Tuke was unusual in successfully specialising in boys and young men swimming and on the beach.

Artworks

  • The Toilet of Venus
    The Toilet of Venus Duncan Grant (1885–1978) and Vanessa Bell (1879–1961)
    Southampton City Art Gallery
  • Bath Time (The Miner's Toilet and Wash Night)
    Bath Time (The Miner's Toilet and Wash Night) William Patrick Roberts (1895–1980)
    Bolton Museum and Art Gallery
  • Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
    Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)
    The National Gallery, London
  • Bathers (Étaples)
    Bathers (Étaples) Samuel John Peploe (1871–1935)
    The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
  • Decoration: Morning
    Decoration: Morning Ethel Walker (1861–1951)
    York Art Gallery
  • The Passing Hour
    The Passing Hour William Shackleton (1872–1933)
    The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
  • Occupation Diptych: The House and the Cockerel
    Occupation Diptych: The House and the Cockerel David Henley (b.1949)
    Jersey Museum and Art Gallery
  • 94 more

Stories

  • Illustration from Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De Mulieribus Claris'
    Reflections on the mirror in art

    Anne Wallentine

  • 1654, oil on oak by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
    Rembrandt's 'A Woman bathing in a Stream' at The National Gallery in London

    Bart Cornelis

  • Dead pretty: the perils of Georgian beauty regimes

    Jon Sleigh

  • Elizabeth I (The Armada Portrait)
    Art Matters podcast: beauty and power in art

    Ferren Gipson

  • Ladies at their toilette: private moments and public spectacle

    Grace England

  • Ruth Murray in her studio
    Seven questions with Ruth Murray

    Imelda Barnard


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® is a registered trade mark of the Public Catalogue Foundation.
Art UK is the operating name of the Public Catalogue Foundation, a charity registered in England and Wales (1096185) and Scotland (SC048601).