The Bathers

Best known for allegorical and mythological scenes that allowed him to demonstrate his great facility for rendering the nude figure, Etty here offers a subject that is more informal in tone if not in finish. Three female bathers gather around a boat moored on a riverbank, while a fourth clothed figure sits inside the barge. Etty painted several such scenes of summertime bathing during his career, most frequently calling on the landscape of the countryside of his native York, England.