Naval Bathhouse

The painting Flottans Badhus, signed 1907, is a monumental composition that synthesises Jansson’s meticulous figure studies with his experience of rendering shifts in light from his earlier atmospheric paintings. The sun casts blue shadows over muscular male bodies standing, sitting or lying along the jetty at the bathhouse. A particularly well-built young man stands with his back to the viewer and appears to be watching a bather who is throwing herself into the water from one of the roofs. It is a daring, powerful and highly painterly composition, which marks the transition from experimentation to a fully realised form.