The nude and bathers are among the most established subjects in the history of art, predicated upon the study of the human figure that formed the basis of a traditional education. They can encompass myriad approaches, from Carolus-Duran's Classical nude Danaë (1900), anchored in 19th-century academic practices, to the Modernist experimentation of Edgar Degas's After the Bath (ca. 1898). Joan Brull i Vinyoles's imaginary, sylvan Nymphs at Dusk (ca. 1899) and Paul Gauguin's exotic South Sea women (The Bathers, 1897) coexist with Walter Sickert's wading resort-goers (The Bathers, Dieppe, 1902), all of whom suggest avenues of escape from the rapidly developing cities.