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Bathers, Bodies, Beauty

Explore Manet's Le Dejeuner sur L'herbe in which a nude female lounges at a picnic with two fully clothed males. Is it about the subjugation of women; their domination, feminine beauty, male fantasy? All of the above or none of them? It was rejected at the Paris salon of 1863 but displayed at the Salon des Refusés where it was widely panned.

Linda Nochlin's book, Bathers, Bodies, Beauty confronts many of the issues contained via representations of the human form, particularly that of the female body, traveling through many artistic eras such as impressionism, realism and post-modernism.

Among the artists whose works are examined in the book are Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Bonnard, Picasso, Pearlstein, Neel and Saville. Over time the art of portraiture has changed both in style and for materialistic reasons.

Bathers, Bodies, Beauty asks provocative questions without providing answers. Why are nudes so popular among artists and by default their viewers? It isn't always the "beautiful" of which Nochlin writes. Nochlin's examination of the human body in art is both thoughtful and illustrative. Nochlin uses the viewpoints of feminist writers as part of her research into this ethereal subject.

The initial essays deal with the notion of bathing in art. Manet's work was originally called The Bathers. A fascinating essay deals with images of men in the bathtub and bathing, not a popular art subject. There is an intriguing comparison between David's Death of Marat and Picasso's Le Meutre / The Murder. It is likely the latter was based on the former. Marat was a Jacobian and among those that organized France's Reign of Terror. Corday was from a penniless aristocratic family and knew of many who suffered thanks to Marat and his beliefs. Marat had a debilitating skin disease causing him to spend much time in his bathtub where he would conduct many of his business interests. Corday convinced him she had information of a plot and gained entry to his home where she killed him. Four days later she faced her own death via the guillotine. Marat is a martyr in David's image, Corday doesn't appear. Picasso's image is terrifying, focusing on Corday's discombobulated body with massive teeth and a hand holding a huge butcher knife about to strike. It isn't beautiful but it is bathing imagery.

In an examination of the human body its academic to wonder what the author would have to say if they were the subject on view. Nochlin answers this unasked question with the inclusion of two self-portraits; Phlip Pearlstein's Portrait of Linda Noclin & Richard Pommer, 1968 and Alice Neel's Linda Nochlin and Daisy, 1973. In a self-critical analysis the author includes Neel's comment that Nochlin doesn't appear to be so anxious, but that is the end result.

Bathers, Bodies, Beauty is resplendent with art works that are examined in Nochlin's accompanying text. Read the essays and then enjoy a second look at some of the finest art works on these three subjects.