Walther, Pablo Picasso , Cologne, , vol. The Fifties I, , San Francisco, , no. Bathers were a reccurring theme throughout Picasso's oeuvre. Although he painted landscape intermittently, the subject of the bather in a natural setting persisted throughout his career, beginning with the early Cubist period in , the Neo-Classical bathers of the early s, the Surrealist figures of the late s and early s, and continuing to Joy of Life of From onward, Picasso spent many summers on the Mediterranean where he explored his interest in the freedom of movement in the open air.
Following the war, Picasso returned to the Mediterranean and in the summer of purchased a large and ornate nineteenth century villa overlooking Cannes with views of Golfe Juan and Antibes.
It is also this summer when the present work was painted that the artist returned to the theme of the bather depicting the beach called La Garoupe in Cap d'Antibes.
Picasso was particularly enamoured with La Garoupe from his first encounter with it in 'I was stupefied; I knew right away that countryside was for me' quoted in Ina Conzen, Picasso: Badende exhibition catalogue , op. The Garoupe paintings were executed while the filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot was staying in the south of France to film the celebrated painter at work.
In its early stages, it was almost decorative and scenic in character without any dominant figures but after numerous adjustments and erasures, monumental figures of a seated bather to the right and a standing couple left of centre dominate the composition.
