"The Bathers," Paul Cézanne, 1899-1904.
Cézanne (1839-1906) was an important painter in that he bridged the gap between Impressionism and modern art movements; in fact, some say that Cubism wouldn't have existed without him.
This is one of a series of similarly-themed paintings that he produced late in life (a larger and more famous version is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art), and a series where he abandoned the current ideas of what art should be, and flouted convention in creating a new style that he felt would stand the test of time. And obviously, it did.
While it seems idyllic, a closer look tells you that it's all done in quick, energetic strokes, with no real attention to detail, just enough to get the point across. By communicating his image with quick strokes and basic shapes, he helped inspire the Cubists and other modern artists who came later, and he's still revered by the avant-garde today.
Many of his "Bathers" paintings only went on exhibit posthumously; he died of pneumonia (after being caught in a bad storm and refusing to go in, resulting in hypothermia) at 67.
From the Art Institute of Chicago.
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