Bathing women

The motif of bathing women has been repeatedly taken up by artists, for example by Paul Cézanne, August Renoire, Edgar Degas. It can be found in both Christian art and mythology. In the Old Testament, the motif can be found in the story of Susanna and the Elders - a woman peeping in the bath, wrongly accused of sin; Bathsheba - the beautiful wife of Uriah, who committed a sin, noticed by King David while bathing. In mythology, the figure depicted in the bath is Venus, the goddess who emerged from the sea foam, and Diana, the goddess of hunting.

Jan Wydra's drawing depicts a naked woman leaning on a riverbank, viewed from a concealed position. The figure is bent down to the ground, her face is invisible, hidden in her arms, which makes the act anonymous and the model is not the centre of attention. The figure's Rubens-like silhouette may reflect the inspiration of Jan Wydra, a member of the Brotherhood of St Luke, with 17th-century European painting. The second woman stands upright in the middle of the river, tilting her head back. The landscape depicted, in which the bathing scene takes place, is dotted with two trees and some bushes, from behind which a hilly area emerges.

Apart from the subject matter familiar from paintings of several centuries ago, the form of the representation is appropriate to the time of the work's creation. The 20th century, as a time of many changes in art, left a visible mark on Wydra's work. Despite being synthetic, the drawing does not lose its realism. Using modest means of expression, clear contours and delicate chiaroscuro modelling, it retains the legibility of the depicted scene.

Klara Sadkowska