Also called Bathsheba with King David's Letter, this painting depicts Bathsheba nude at her bath while she pensively ponders the King's letter in her right hand. The rich colors, the copper and gold draperies in the background, echoed by the gleaming gold of Bathsheba's jewelry emphasize the luminous glow of her nude body. The use of chiaroscuro seen in the white linen contrasting with the dark background and the highlights of her skin contrasting with the fabric's softly shadowed folds creates a sensual presence. The body here is almost palpable, drawing the viewer's eye. The painting is based upon the Biblical account of how King David, having seen Bathsheba bathing, commanded her to come to his palace, even though she was married to one of his generals, Uriah. When she obeyed and became pregnant as a result, David had her husband sent into the front lines of battle to be killed so that he could marry her. Subsequently, their child was stillborn, and David, realizing his sinfulness, did penance sitting in rags and ashes at the city's gate for a year. For the religious viewers of the time, the familiar Biblical story would have added a sense of fateful foreshadowing to the moment depicted here, as if Bathsheba were pondering not only her moral and personal dilemma, but also what would follow. The maidservant, kneeling at left to wash her foot, has her gaze discreetly lowered in darkness, as if aware of what the letter means.
Going against the current of his time, Rembrandt was the only great artist of the nude in the Dutch Golden Age, though he transfigured the genre by, as Simon Schama noted, creating "the first depiction of a woman thinking." The model for this painting is thought to be Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's life companion, though that attribution continues to be debated. Nonetheless, the work conveys intimacy of presence and of thought.
This work influenced Manet's The Surprised Nymph (1859-1861), Degas' Women Having Her Hair Combed (c. 1885), Frédéric Bazille's La Toilette (1870), and Picasso's Seated Nude and Another Figure (1963). Picasso was particularly influenced by Rembrandt, whom he took for a kind of alter ego, saying "every painter takes himself for Rembrandt."
Bathsheba at Her Bath (or Bathsheba with King David's Letter) is an oil painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606–1669) finished in 1654.
A depiction that is both sensual and empathetic, it shows a moment from the Old Testament story in which King David sees Bathsheba bathing and, entranced, seduces and impregnates her. In order to marry Bathsheba and conceal his sin, David sends her husband into battle and orders his generals to abandon him, leaving him to certain death.
While the scene of David spying on Bathsheba had been painted by earlier artists, Rembrandt's depiction differs in its tight pictorial focus and erotic vitality, achieved through broad, thick brushstrokes and vibrant coloration.
The painting hangs in The Louvre; it is one of 583 works donated by Dr. Louis La Caze in 1869. For Kenneth Clark, the canvas is "Rembrandt's greatest painting of the nude". Its insight into Bathsheba's moral dilemma has been described as "one of the great achievements of western painting."
The Second Book of Samuel (11:2-4) gives the account of King David who saw a woman bathing from his palace roof. When he asked after her, he was told that she was Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite. David had his messengers retrieve her, and after they slept together she became pregnant with his child. David was able to marry Bathsheba by sending Uriah into battle where he was killed.
Prior to Bathsheba at Her Bath, the standard treatment had been to show Bathsheba bathing out of doors—thus accounting for her visibility to David—and accompanied by maidservants. A tower could usually be seen in the distance, and perhaps a small figure of David, sometimes accompanied by his two courtiers. Such was the design Rembrandt's earlier The Toilet of Bathsheba, dated 1643. By eliminating David, his messengers and most of the traditional narrative elements from the picture—the only anecdotal references included are the letter from David (not actually mentioned in Samuel) and the presence of an attendant drying her foot—Rembrandt's presentation of Bathsheba is both intimate and monumental. As a result, the moralistic theme of previous treatments of the subject is replaced by a direct eroticism in which the viewer supplants David as voyeur.
The work is painted as life sized and in a shallow space, with Bathsheba dominating the composition as she had in no other earlier version of the scene. It is not known whether Rembrandt painted Bathsheba for his own reasons, or to satisfy a commission. Presumably in response to Rembrandt's painting, his ex-pupil and close associate Willem Drost painted Bathsheba with David's Letter the same year, which is also in the Louvre.
Apart from the lack of anecdotal devices, the painting is unusual in other ways. Bathsheba is presented in a space that is difficult to read. The dark background is suggestive of night, while a massive column implies a large architectural structure. Behind her lies a passage of richly painted drapery composed of browns and ochers that impart a golden warmth. Around her rests a thickly painted background of white chemise; set against this her naked flesh stands out for its solid form and the sumptuous application of paint. The paint used to describe her figure is richly nuanced, its broad brushstrokes and strong highlights impart a vibrant tactile quality to the body, rendering her presence palpable.
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