1864
Fusain sur papier
16 x 24 cm - 6 5/16 x 9 7/16 in.
Collection particulière
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-05-07 22:45:07
Référence : MSb-98
Famille de l'artiste, Montpellier - Don de la famille à Henri Focillon - Collection particulière - Vente Paris-Drouot, 13 mai 2022, n° 120.
Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 47 - Genève, musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 1951, n° 86 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 44, repr. p. 96.
Sarraute, 1948, n° 47 - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 23, pp. 149, 197 [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Marandel, Cat. exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 44, repr. p. 96 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 10 des dessins, repr. p. 242 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 98.
This drawing was bequeathed by the family to Henri Focillon, most likely following a lecture given by the latter in Montpellier on June 4, 1927. [La vie montpelliéraine et régionale, June 18, 1927].
Overlaps are evident between this study and certain preparatory drawings for the Summer Scene. Technically first, the Bathers are similar to another drawing, Study for the Summer Scene, although the latter is of a more summary technique.
What place is this? In the Chicago exhibition catalogue, 1978, Marandel speaks of a reminiscence of the 1864 trip to Honfleur. The presence of the boats on the sea seems to prove him right. Either this drawing dates from the Summer of 1864, or it must be admitted that it was done from memory, in which case Marandel suggests the date 1869. In any case, Bazille, to our knowledge, never painted the Mediterranean Sea, yet so close to Méric.
Bazille was careful to frame his pencil drawing. Does this mean that it is a preparatory drawing for a painting? Poulain, the first, points to lost studies made in Honfleur in 1864. [Poulain, 1932, p. 221]. This one could belong to the same series.
