Bathsheba at Her Bath (Bathsheba Holding King David's Letter)
Original title: Bathsheba at Her Bath (Bathsheba Holding King David's Letter)
Date: 1654
Art form: Painting
Dimensions: 142 X 142 cm (55.91 X 55.91 in)
Also called Bathsheba with King David's Letter, this painting depicts Bathsheba nude at her bath while she pensively ponders the King's letter in her right hand. The rich colors, the copper and gold draperies in the background, echoed by the gleaming gold of Bathsheba's jewelry emphasize the luminous glow of her nude body. The use of chiaroscuro seen in the white linen contrasting with the dark background and the highlights of her skin contrasting with the fabric's softly shadowed folds creates a sensual presence. The body here is almost palpable, drawing the viewer's eye. The painting is based upon the Biblical account of how King David, having seen Bathsheba bathing, commanded her to come to his palace, even though she was married to one of his generals, Uriah. When she obeyed and became pregnant as a result, David had her husband sent into the front lines of battle to be killed so that he could marry her. Subsequently, their child was stillborn, and David, realizing his sinfulness, did penance sitting in rags and ashes at the city's gate for a year. For the religious viewers of the time, the familiar Biblical story would have added a sense of fateful foreshadowing to the moment depicted here, as if Bathsheba were pondering not only her moral and personal dilemma, but also what would follow. The maidservant, kneeling at left to wash her foot, has her gaze discreetly lowered in darkness, as if aware of what the letter means.
Going against the current of his time, Rembrandt was the only great artist of the nude in the Dutch Golden Age, though he transfigured the genre by, as Simon Schama noted, creating "the first depiction of a woman thinking." The model for this painting is thought to be Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's life companion, though that attribution continues to be debated. Nonetheless, the work conveys intimacy of presence and of thought.
This work influenced Manet's The Surprised Nymph (1859-1861), Degas' Women Having Her Hair Combed (c. 1885), Frédéric Bazille's La Toilette (1870), and Picasso's Seated Nude and Another Figure (1963). Picasso was particularly influenced by Rembrandt, whom he took for a kind of alter ego, saying "every painter takes himself for Rembrandt."
