Classic composition

The 1906 death of Paul Cézanne led André Derain to pursue a subject favored by the last of the great Post-Impressionists: bathers in an idyllic landscape. In this diminutive oil, Derain divides his small landscape into two sloping, forest-green patches of land—dotted with citrus-colored strokes—surrounding the mouth of a deep ultramarine river. The bathers appear in various states of undress, with one especially curvy figure turning from the viewer as her thick raven hair falls just above her waist. A vibrant array of whites helps to tie together this almost mythic space.