Deux Baigneuses 

Curator: We’re looking at “Deux Baigneuses,” or “Two Bathers,” a drawing by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, rendered in ink. Editor: The density of lines is striking, almost suffocating. It feels heavy, laden with humidity. Not necessarily a relaxing bath. Curator: Steinlen was, of course, deeply influenced by the artistic climate of Montmartre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's tempting to read this in light of the Realist movement’s focus on depicting everyday life, far from academic pomp. Editor: Everyday life, if everyday life always included an implicit male gaze. I find myself immediately questioning whose perspective is being centered here. Are we meant to admire? To voyeuristically observe? The water even seems murky. Curator: The interesting element for me is how Steinlen blends these nudes with the surrounding landscape. He used a fairly linear style, but this contributes to that integration with the plantlife. Editor: I agree that the lack of distinct outlines separating bodies and landscape is remarkable. But that ambiguity could be seen as contributing to a loss of individual agency within this naturalized, arguably objectifying scene. There's something to be said about representing female nudes and its place in the art historical canon. Curator: Precisely! It also serves to create a compositional unity that links this to wider cultural shifts of the era where a focus on naturalism seeped into artwork across Europe and beyond. Editor: I’d add that Steinlen's contemporary socio-political leanings – his work with leftist journals, for example – cannot be extracted. Doesn't make this simple artistic indulgence, and perhaps prompts us to ask what he's communicating about contemporary perceptions, desires, or power relations regarding the female form. Curator: Considering this within that framework gives the drawing extra resonance; one that requires more unpacking of the relationship between subject, viewer, and that charged historical environment of la Belle Époque. Editor: Yes, I walk away intrigued, even challenged, which speaks to a lasting provocation embedded within the work, even if, on the surface, it just seems like a simple study of nude bathers in a pond.