[Bathers on the beach]

1986.56.599.a
Dimensions
15 5/16 x 11 3/16 in. (38.9 x 28.4 cm)
Estate/Inventory Number
O 53
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.56.599.a. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Other Side
1986.56.599.b
Remarks
The subject of this watercolor—two seemingly nude bathers—suggests that it may have been painted during or inspired by Rothko’s 1934 summer in Gloucester, Massachusetts, when he and his wife Edith Sachar (1912–1981) vacationed there with the Averys—Milton (1885–1965), Sally, and March—and Esther and Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974). The abrupt cropping of the figures indicates that Rothko’s composition continued onto the full sheet (likely 15 x 22 inches, a standard size) before he cut it in half and painted [Couple in bed] on the reverse side; the other half of the sheet has not been found. Rothko’s use of a nonmimetic palette for the figures recalls canvases he painted around this time of a reclining blue-green nude (fig. 1) and a man with a green face (fig. 2); Rothko may have been prompted by Avery’s burgeoning exploration of vivid color. The posture and modeling of Rothko’s figures also recall Blue Nude by Henri Matisse (1869–1954) (fig. 3), which Rothko could have seen in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Henri Matisse, which was on view November 3–December 6, 1931.
[Bathers on the beach]
1. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Reclining Nude), 1933/1934, oil on canvas, 12 x 36 in., Collection of Kate Rothko Prizel, © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. [Anfam 42]
[Bathers on the beach]
2. Mark Rothko, Untitled (man with green face), 1934/1935, oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 24 in., National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko, 1986.43.100. [Anfam 65]
[Bathers on the beach]
3. Henri Matisse, Blue Nude, 1907, oil on canvas, Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, © 2013 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
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