Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - The Bather and Time

Preview image of work. pen and black ink on tan tracing paper, mounted on cream wove paper, The Bather and Time 21566

2011.69.84

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The Bather and Time

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Artist

Rodolphe Bresdin (1822 - 1885)

Title

The Bather and Time

Creation Date

1856

Century

mid-19th century

Dimensions

4 in. x 2 13/16 in. (10.2 cm x 7.1 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

Europe, France

Medium and Support

pen and black ink on tan tracing paper, mounted on cream wove paper

Credit Line

Bequest of David P. Becker, Class of 1970

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

2011.69.84

Rodolphe Bresdin, one of the most visionary and eccentric graphic artists of the nineteenth century, was admired by the likes of Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire. This pairing of a preparatory drawing from 1856 and the related lithograph, published in Toulouse the following year, reveals the artist’s process. The drawing is a quick, energetic working study. It depicts a young woman bathing in a pond as Death observes time running out. Several differences between the drawing and the print can be noted. In the latter, the viewpoint is higher and more distant, the landscape more expansive and atmospheric, and the vegetation lusher. The drawing is made on tan tracing paper, which Bresdin used frequently to transfer motifs: either to copy details from a source; to keep a record of a highly finished drawing; or, as most probably in this instance, to transfer a compositional idea and then refine it.

Additional Media

front

front/detail

front

front/detail