Bathers 1921

René Magritte painted these bathers, of course, with oil on canvas. It looks like he mixed dark and light colours together to create subtle differences in tone, which in turn gives the figures a real sense of depth. I notice that the paint seems to have been applied in blocky sections, each one carefully considered, but not blended together to create a smooth surface, which is a neat touch. I love this kind of paint handling – it's like Magritte is letting us see the process, showing us how the painting came to be, brushstroke by brushstroke. Look at the torso of the central bather, you can almost see how Magritte built it up from a series of flat planes. The Belgian painter James Ensor also liked the painting process to be visible. It’s good to keep in mind that art is a conversation across time, a way for artists to bounce ideas off each other, and respond to their predecessors.