Tommies Bathing (John Singer Sargent)

Painting by John Singer Sargent

Tommies Bathing

Artist| John Singer Sargent
Year| 1918
Dimensions| 34.6 cm (13.6 in) × 53.2 cm (20.9 in)
Location| Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession No.| 50.130.58
Identifiers| The Met object ID: 12440

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Tommies Bathing is a 1918 watercolor painting by John Singer Sargent. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.[1]

## Early history and creation

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Sargent painted Tommies Bathing in the summer of 1918. The British government had commissioned him for a painting that would commemorate the efforts of the Americans and British in World War I, so he traveled to the front in the valley of the Somme to find a subject. During this time, he painted some informal watercolors, including Tommies Bathing. The name "Tommy" comes from "Thomas Atkins," the fictitious name the British Army used on official forms for private soldiers.[2]

## Later history and display

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The watercolor was a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1950 from Mrs. Francis Ormond, Sargent's sister.[2]

## Description and interpretation

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The work depicts soldiers bathing, resting, and sleeping or napping, implying a narrative from the bathing soldier, to the soldier drying himself in the sunlight, to the partially dressed soldier.[3] Sargent used a high, voyeuristic viewpoint and shows the men in a state of complete relaxation. He also captured the shadows cast across the bodies by blades of grass, with technical facility.[4]

## See also

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* List of works by John Singer Sargent

## References

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1. ^ "Tommies Bathing". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2. ^ a b "Tommies Bathing, 1918". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
3. ^ Herdrich, Stephanie L. (2000). American drawings and watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art : John Singer Sargent. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 258\. ISBN 0870999524. OCLC 43615463.
4. ^ "Tommies Bathing". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20.

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John Singer Sargent

List of works

Paintings|

* Dr. Pozzi at Home (1881)
* The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882)
* El Jaleo (1882)
* Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt) (1882)
* Street in Venice (1882)
* Portrait of Madame X (1884)
* The Misses Vickers (1884)
* Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885)
* Reapers Resting in a Wheat Field (1885)
* Portrait of Mrs. Cecil Wade (1886)
* Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889)
* Egyptians Raising Water from the Nile (1890–1891)
* Egyptian Woman with Earrings (1890–1891)
* Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892)
* Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (1892)
* Portrait of Léon Delafosse (1895)
* Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes (1897)
* Wertheimer portraits (1898–1908)
* The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant (1899)
* William M. Chase, N. A. (1902)
* Lord Ribblesdale (1902)
* Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel (1903)
* Padre Sebastiano (1904–1906)
* Arab Woman (c. 1905–1906)
* Alpine Pool (1907)
* Cashmere (1908)
* The Hermit (Il solitario) (1908)
* Arthur Balfour (1908)
* Bringing Down Marble from the Quarries to Carrara (1911)
* Tyrolese Interior (1915)
* Tommies Bathing (1918)
* Gassed (1919)
* Synagogue (1919)
* General Officers of World War I (1922)

Drawings|

* Splendid Mountain Watercolours (1870)
* Mountain Stream (1912–1914)

Related|

* Grand Central Art Galleries
* Grand Central School of Art
* Rosina Ferrara

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