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拍品专文
This work will be included in the forthcoming Van Rysselberghe catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Pascal de Sadeleer and Olivier Bertrand.
Painted at the high point of the artist's Divisionist period, the present work is a preparatory work for the monumental L'heure embrasée of the same year, considered as one of the most important pictorial achievements of van Rysselberghe's œuvre and currently at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar.
Van Rysselberghe longed to tackle the theme of bathers, and was greatly influenced by the works of Botticelli on his visit to Florence in 1890. The genesis of this work can be traced back as early as 1895 when the artist excitedly wrote to Van Velde: 'Tu sais que je suis très en mal d'enfantement de 'ma toile' en décor clair et tendre auquel je rêve, peuplé de femmes s'ébattant près de l'eau: prétexte à lignes et gammes joyeuses' (T. van Rysselberghe, quoted in R. Feltkamp, Théo van Rysselberghe, 1862-1926, Brussels, 2003, pp. 62-63). His preparation for the execution of this painting was exhaustive, as evidenced in his letter to Lucien Pissarro in 1895: 'Je me prépare à partir bientôt pour Saint-Tropez où je vais faire des études pour le décor de ma toile des baigneuses; j'aurai là-bas des éléments que je ne trouve pas dans ce pays-ci: arbres etc. près de la mer, en silhouette' (ibid., p. 63).
This canvas demonstrates the artist's mastery of the pointillist technique that Georges Seurat had pioneered in the mid-1880s. Rejecting the spontaneous and irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, the practitioners of divisionism favoured a precise, methodical application of pigment governed by the scientific principles of colour theory. This technique is used to a wonderful effect in the present work as the pink, mauve and orange hues attain an incredible luminosity, suffusing the sinuous nude bathers with incredible warmth.
Painted at the high point of the artist's Divisionist period, the present work is a preparatory work for the monumental L'heure embrasée of the same year, considered as one of the most important pictorial achievements of van Rysselberghe's œuvre and currently at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar.
Van Rysselberghe longed to tackle the theme of bathers, and was greatly influenced by the works of Botticelli on his visit to Florence in 1890. The genesis of this work can be traced back as early as 1895 when the artist excitedly wrote to Van Velde: 'Tu sais que je suis très en mal d'enfantement de 'ma toile' en décor clair et tendre auquel je rêve, peuplé de femmes s'ébattant près de l'eau: prétexte à lignes et gammes joyeuses' (T. van Rysselberghe, quoted in R. Feltkamp, Théo van Rysselberghe, 1862-1926, Brussels, 2003, pp. 62-63). His preparation for the execution of this painting was exhaustive, as evidenced in his letter to Lucien Pissarro in 1895: 'Je me prépare à partir bientôt pour Saint-Tropez où je vais faire des études pour le décor de ma toile des baigneuses; j'aurai là-bas des éléments que je ne trouve pas dans ce pays-ci: arbres etc. près de la mer, en silhouette' (ibid., p. 63).
This canvas demonstrates the artist's mastery of the pointillist technique that Georges Seurat had pioneered in the mid-1880s. Rejecting the spontaneous and irregular brushwork of the Impressionists, the practitioners of divisionism favoured a precise, methodical application of pigment governed by the scientific principles of colour theory. This technique is used to a wonderful effect in the present work as the pink, mauve and orange hues attain an incredible luminosity, suffusing the sinuous nude bathers with incredible warmth.