The Bathers , dated 1905

Oil on canvas  

Signed and dated lower right 

Dimensions: with frame 67.5 x 58.5 cm

Reproduced on p. 66-67 in François Roussier, Jacqueline Marval: 1866-1932

Jacqueline Marval is a painter from the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1866 from a family of teachers near Grenoble, she only came to painting late. She moved to Paris in 1895 in Montparnasse, at the heart of artistic life at the turn of the century. A modest seamstress by trade, she was introduced to painting under the leadership of her companion Jules Flandrin (1871 - 1947), a pupil of Gustave Moreau. He encouraged her talent as an observer and colorist. She meets Matisse, Guérin, Laurencin, Camin, Rouault, Marquet and the others.

The artist opens the way to dreams and gentleness in his poetic compositions. A talented painter, she is modeled on the ideas of Fauvism: breaking perspective, giving density to the pictorial material through color and touch, getting out of academic subjects to enhance the verism of the landscape as the dreamlike projections of the mind.

Her paintings were refused at the Salon of 1900, she only exhibited there the following year. At that time, the genius collectors and gallery owners Berthe Weill, Ambroise Vollard and Eugène Druet bought and exhibited his work. In February 1902, Jacqueline Marval exhibited alongside Matisse, Marquet, and her companion Flandrin at Berthe Weill, 25 rue Victor Massé. From then on, she took off and exhibited internationally, in Europe, the United States and Asia.