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Artist or Maker: Frederick Arthur Bridgman (American, 1847-1928)

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Description: Frederick Arthur Bridgman (American, 1847-1928)
After the Bath
signed 'F. A. Bridgman' (lower left); inscribed 'After the Bath' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
31 x 25¾ in. (78.7 x 65.4 cm.)

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Notes: Property from a California Collection


For a biography of the artist, please see lot 10.

After the Bath departs from the typical iconography used by the artist throughout his oeuvre . Bridgman's repertoire abounds in North African scenes, desert scenes, topographical works and the imagined interior of harems. He painted large canvases of Oriental woman, but rarely the nude. Bridgman here has broken away from the teachings of his master, Jean Léon Gérôme, and has painted this woman in a more free and sensual manner. The figure is not academically stylized - the artist has depicted a flesh and blood woman in the simple act of putting on her shoes after a bath.

The American approach to the Orient differs from that of the artists of the European countries, particularly in their approach to women. While the European, and particularly the French artists, depict Oriental women in institutional subjugation - within a harem, surrounded by guards - Bridgman's view takes a completely different turn.

Bridgman's woman is alone. There are no clues in the background as to her station in life. The artist uses the motif of the open door to suggest either freedom or surveillance, and this motif appears more than once in his oeuvre. In The Siesta (fig. 1) Bridgman also depicts a lone women, with the open door in the background. The addition of the monkey, a symbol of licentiousness, perhaps adds some clues to the nature of the scene, but it is also ambiguous in that the inclusion of the animal would be perfectly normal as they were so often used as pets. The same is true in After the Bath . Although it could be interpreted many ways, it is perhaps most logical to see it as the artist's vision of another everyday event in the Orient, and its exoticism simply enhances its sensuality.


(fig. 1) Frederick Arthur Bridgman, The Siesta , 1878, Private Collection.

The present lot has been authenticated by Dr. Ilene Susan Fort, the Gail and John Liebes Curator of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.