Kunsthaus Zürich

Vallotton painted «Bathing on a Summer Evening» (1892) for the Salon des Indépendants of 1893. At the time, the caricatured depiction of people bathing in public caused a scandal. Ladies of all ages felt that they had been shown in unflattering poses on the canvas.

Born in Lausanne in 1865, Vallotton married into a wealthy family and is regarded as a master of irony. Society’s double standards, depicted here in greater variety and in more exaggerated form than in any of his other paintings, are as topical today as they were in his lifetime (1865-1925).

The painting was purchased for the Kunsthaus by the Gottfried Keller Foundation in 1965.

Restoration of the painting has now been made possible thanks to the generous support of the BNP Paribas Switzerland Foundation.

A long-standing and valued patron of museums, the Foundation is committed to preserving their artistic treasures and making them accessible to the public. As part of its ‘BNP Paribas pour L’Art’ programme, it therefore promotes collection publications by museums as well as the restoration of their masterpieces.

Exhibition in 2015

Once restoration is complete the work will be on display once again, initially as part of the exhibition ‘Monet, Gauguin, van Gogh… Japanese Inspirations’ at the Kunsthaus Zürich from 20 February to 25 May 2015 before returning to the permanent collection.