Caillebotte, Man at his Bath, 1884

Man at his Bath
1884

CAILLEBOTTE, Gustave
1848 – 1894
L670. On loan from a private collection.

Signed and dated.

This picture may have been inspired by Degas’s scenes of women bathing, but the subject of the male nude in an ordinary domestic setting is unusual in 19th-century art. Details like the wet footprints, the heap of clothes and the reflections on the metal bath-tub emphasise the banality of the setting.

Such a frank, voyeuristic portrayal of the nude form was potentially shocking to a contemporary audience, and when the painting was first exhibited in Brussels in 1888, it seems to have been shown in a separate room.

Oil on canvas
144.8 x 114.3 cm.