The Bather, known as the Valpinçon Bather [VR180]

This work featuring a bathing woman is generally known by the name of one of its nineteenth-century owners. It was one of the works Ingres sent to Paris in 1808 when he was studying at the French Academy in Rome. This early work is a masterpiece of harmonious lines and delicate light. The woman's superb nude back left a deep impression on the artist; he returned to it in several later works, most notably the Turkish Bath.
From Rome to Paris

This Seated Woman, as the painting was originally titled, is one of the three works Ingres was required to send to Paris as a student at the French Academy in Rome (the other two being a Half-length portrait of a woman bathing, 1807, now in the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne, and an Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1808, now in the Louvre). It was an odd choice of subject for a student at the Academy. The few critics who commented on the work were unimpressed. Ingres's paintings had already caused a scandal at the 1806 Salon, particularly his Portrait of Napoleon I (Musée de l'Armée, Paris), punningly described as the "empereur mal-ingre" (the emperor looking a bit ill) and a barbarian piece of work, and his portraits of the Rivière family (Louvre). It was not until the Universal Exhibition in 1855 that the work received favorable notice from critics, including the Goncourt brothers, who wrote, "Rembrandt himself would have envied the amber color of this pale torso."

This is the first VR180 video of The Bather, known as the Valpinçon Bather uploaded to Google

The Bather,known as the Valpinçon Bather,VR180,Paris,France,Louvre,