Les baigneuses

Bathers enjoy a woodland landscape setting in this genre scene from 1743 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Nicolas Lancret, one of the most successful practitioners of the fête galante genre, extended Watteau's formal invention into a more varied repertoire that included bathing scenes alongside the garden entertainments and theatrical subjects he was best known for. The outdoor female nude, set in a landscape with the mythology of Diana and her nymphs as its implicit classical reference, was a genre that allowed Rococo painters to combine erotic subject matter with the decorum of classical precedent. Rouen's museum, one of the finest French provincial art institutions, preserves this Lancret alongside significant works by his contemporaries.

Lancret arranges the bathing figures within a verdant landscape setting, creating the characteristic fête galante combination of figure and nature. His brushwork is lighter and more decorative than Watteau's, with an emphasis on elegant surface effects over psychological depth. The palette features the fresh greens, pinks, and blues of Rococo outdoor scenes.