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The Bathers

American Art

This illustration was accompanied by a comment on the vicissitudes of bathing costumes:

Nothing could be prettier or more bewitching than the sight of a charming young woman in an elegant and tasteful bathing costume, as she trips over the sand from the dressing-house down to the water’s edge. . . .

But coming out! . . . Can it be that this dripping, bedraggled, forlorn object who comes slowly from the water is the nymph-like creature who excited such admiration a few minutes ago? What a laughable disillusion! . . .The pretty figures in the foreground of Mr. Winslow Homer’s charming picture are perhaps an exception to the general rule, and illustrate the advantages of a costume peculiarly adapted to a graceful exit from the bath.


MEDIUM Wood engraving
DATES 1873
DIMENSIONS Image: 13 7/8 x 9 1/4 in. (35.2 x 23.5 cm) Sheet: 16 x 10 7/8 in. (40.6 x 27.6 cm) Frame: 22 3/4 x 16 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (57.8 x 42.5 x 3.8 cm)
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 1998.105.175
CREDIT LINE Gift of Harvey Isbitts
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Page from Harper's Weekly, August 16, 1873, vol. XVII, p. 668 Drawn by Winslow Homer, engraved by William H. Redding
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
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