After the Bath 1924

Vilhelm Lundstrom painted 'After the Bath' with oil on canvas. The artist was working in Denmark, a country with a strong tradition of figurative painting rooted in its own particular social and cultural contexts. Lundstrom's choice of subject matter, bathers, places him within a longer history of art. We can consider how the artist's approach to the nude figure might challenge or perpetuate particular social norms. In Denmark at this time, there was an increasing interest in the representation of everyday life, which can be seen as either a conservative tendency or a progressive turn towards ordinary people. The painting is less a commentary on the institutions of art, and more a contribution to the idea of what is beautiful, and what subjects are fit to be painted. To more fully understand Lundstrom's work, art historians research exhibition reviews, artists' letters, and other primary source documents. We consider the place of the artwork in its specific cultural moment. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.