Bather

Bouguereau finished this standing nude in 1870, the year France stumbled into war with Prussia and the Second Empire that had showered him with honours fell apart. He was the reigning star of the official Salon, giving the academy exactly the flawless smooth skin it wanted, the kind of polish the coming Impressionists would define themselves against. Which makes its home a small surprise. This bather hangs today in Figueres, in the theatre-museum Salvador Dali built for himself, and Dali unveiled it there in 1973. He spent his later years loudly praising Bouguereau's craft at a time when most critics treated it as an embarrassment, and he wanted this near-two-metre figure among his own work. She stands against a plain earthy ground, weight on one leg, the finish so even it barely shows a brushmark.