(Volos, Greece 1888–1978 Rome)
Bagnante, circa 1930, signed De Chirico, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 92.5 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate:
Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Rome, 27 April 2005, archive no. 0008/04/05 OT Provenance:
Collection Vittorio Barbaroux, MilanGalleria Milano, Milan (label on the reverse)Galleria Rotta, GenoaChristie’s Milan, 24 May 2005, lot 331acquired thence by the current owner - Private Collection, Italy Literature: Raffaele Carrieri, Giorgio De Chirico, Milan, 1942, plate XIX (with incorrect dimensions); Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, I Bagni Misteriosi, De Chirico anni trenta: Parigi, Italia, New York, Milan 1991, page 77 with ill. 35 At the end of the 1920s, Giorgio de Chirico abandoned the genre he himself referred to as “fantastic”, with is mannequins, trophies and gladiators, and returned to a form of painting inspired by nature. He executed a consistent group of Nudi (‘nudes’), for which the most immediate stylistic reference was Renoir’s early work. The painting titled Bagnante (‘bather’), executed in 1930, depicts a frontal nude of imposing size that is reminiscent of Renoir’s The Large Bathers. The woman, whose face is lit by copper hues, sits on a cliff with a comfortable white cloth, behind her a soft, bright sky executed with filamentary brush strokes and a view of the sea made dynamic by means of white, oblique brush strokes. Aside from the subject, Renoir’s influence is also visible in the rendering of the woman’s complexion, with its milky hues modulated with earthy, orange and violet shades. The painting’s iconography oozes Mediterranean sensuality.