Three Bathers

Here, Picasso depicts two nude women reclining on the beach as a third woman swims in the background. The symmetry and subject matter of the work is classicizing, which is indicative of a period after World War I when some avant-garde artists such as André Derain, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Giorgio de Chirico, and Gino Severini reinterpreted classical composition. This return to classicism was spurred by a desire for peace in such a volatile, post-war world. In the French poet Jean Cocteau’s book Le Rappel à L’Ordre (1926), Cocteau titles this period the Return to Order. Three Bathers has classical elements, yet Picasso incorporates his own style through the grotesque distortion of the bodies.
SKU: 6120
Creator: Pablo Picasso
Date: 1920
Original Medium: pastel, oil, ink and graphite on paper
Original Size: 18 13/16 x 24 3/16 in.
Location: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
© 2010 Picasso Administration, Paris, France