In 1884, Gustave Caillebotte painted Man at His Bath, one of the most unconventional and radical male nude paintings of the time. It redefined the genre of the male nude, which was typically reserved for heroic depictions of biblical and mythical figures. While the traditional male nude was employed to represent ideals of heroism, Caillebotte shows the male body in a mundane setting performing a daily function.
From the wet footprints on the floor, it appears that the man has just finished bathing and is drying himself off by vigorously rubbing his wet back. Caillebotte depicted the figure from the rear emphasizing the masculine traits of the body: the man stands strong and erect, showing well-defined muscles. He is in an open-legged position, his backside is clenched and tense, as his scrotum peers through his legs. The same year Caillebotte painted another variation of the theme, Man Drying His Leg (1884). In both cases, it appears that Caillebotte used the same model and the same setting, and the paintings share elements such as the chair and the towel.
In the late 19th century the subject of bathing or nude grooming in art was generally associated with the female nude. Man at His Bath challenged the gender norms of the time, depicting the nude male in a domestic setting, one that was almost exclusively associated with the female figures. The realism and contemporary setting of the image rejected the principles of the idealized academic male nude. Furthermore, by placing the male nude in a traditionally feminine setting Caillebotte undermined the accepted notions of masculinity.
At the same time, it can be argued that Man at His Bath subverted not only traditional imagery but also modern imagery of the female bather. These types of intimate scenes of female grooming were most notable in the work of artist Edgar Degas. Although Degas’s paintings were considered irreverent by his contemporaries, the image of the female bather was still grounded in the long-standing tradition of the female nude in an intimate setting, traditionally incorporated in mythological, biblical and oriental subjects. Caillebotte owned numerous paintings by Degas, and both Man at His Bath and Man Drying His Leg were likely inspired by Degas’s prototype. However, Caillebotte’s versions go beyond it, as they present the male nude in a manner that is completely dislocated from traditional depictions of the subject.
In 1888, Caillebotte sent Man at His Bath to the exhibition of the group Les XX (‘The Twenty’) in Brussels, Belgium. The painting caused great discomfort among late 19th century viewers, so much so that it was removed from the general view and hidden away into an inaccessible space. After the artist died in 1894, the painting had remained in private collections for over a century until 2011, when it was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
