Femmes dans une piscine

Munch painted this in 1896, while he was living in Paris and putting most of his effort into prints. Interiors with women bathing are rare in his work, and this room has never been identified. It will not resolve into a particular place. Looking at the number of figures and the way the sexes are kept apart, scholars have proposed a municipal bathhouse, a spa, a sanatorium and a brothel, and the picture accommodates all four. Cities across Europe were putting up public baths at exactly this moment, largely as a health measure for districts with no plumbing at home. The Munch Museum in Oslo dates the canvas 1896 to 1897. The paint is thin and the weave of the canvas shows through in places, which by this date he was doing on purpose.