Curator's Choice: The Bather
Wood, Christopher, 1901–1930
One of the most gifted artists of his generation, Christopher Wood (1901–1930), born in Knowsley, near Liverpool, painted The Bather sometime between 1925 to 1926. Having studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, he travelled widely on the continent and in a short time was considered with high regard in the London and Paris art worlds.
The Bather was painted at a time of crucial development for Wood: he met and befriended Ben Nicholson (1894–1982) and Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981) in 1926 and travelled to Cornwall where two years later he would ‘discover’ the fisherman-artist Alfred Wallis (1855–1942). Wood died by suicide aged just 29, shortly after completing his final works in 1930.