Ladies Bathing

Art Historical Context

**Ladies Bathing**, delicate drawing from 1717 attributed to Claude Simpol and Bernard Picart, an intimate moment of women bathing amid lush trees. Created with pen and gray ink, brush and wash, heightened with white over faint graphite traces, and featuring incised contours, this small gem measures just 2 15/16 x 4 3/8 inches. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Rogers Fund, 1963), it exemplifies early 18th-century draftsmanship, where precise lines and subtle tonal washes evoke depth and light on an intimate scale. The scene's pastoral charm reflects the era's fascination with natural beauty and everyday leisure, blending serenity with a touch of voyeurism common in genre subjects. Picart, a prolific illustrator active in France and the Netherlands, often employed such mixed-media techniques for studies that could be transferred to prints—hinted by the incised lines—allowing for intricate details in foliage and figures. The heightened white adds luminous highlights to water and skin, enhancing the dreamlike quality. This work invites visitors to appreciate the artistry of preparatory sketches, bridging painting and printmaking in the transition from Baroque to Rococo sensibilities, where women in harmonious landscapes symbolized innocence and delight.