Paul Graf - Children Bathing by a Rocky Shore, 1892

Paul Graf (1866–1903), Swedish

Children Bathing by a Rocky Shore, 1892

signed Graf and indistinctly dated 1892
oil on canvas mounted on panel
unframed 139 × 175 cm (54.7 × 68.9 in)
framed 154 × 191 cm (60.6 × 75.2 in)

Provenance: Private collection, Gothenburg.

Condition Report: The painting is in very good condition with bright and clear colors. Seamed canvas. Contact gallery for UV photos.

Comparison:
Bathing Boys, Skagen Beach (1892), oil on canvas, 77 × 110 cm.
Sold at Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 26 November 2013 (auction 845, lot 53) for approx. €11,700 (incl. fees).

Essay:
For Paul Graf, a Swedish artist active in the late 19th century, the summer of 1892 spent at Skagen was especially fruitful. Most likely painted on the sunlit Jutland coast, an ambitious plein air composition capturing a lively group of nude children at play in shallow water by a rocky shoreline. Graf had studied at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and subsequently in Paris with the renowned academic painter Léon Bonnat (a mentor to several Nordic artists, including Laurits Tuxen and P. S. Krøyer). In 1891–92 he joined the international artists’ colony at Skagen in Denmark, as confirmed by the Brøndum’s Hotel guestbook, which records Graf’s visits in September 1891 and again in the summer of 1892. Immersed in this vibrant community, he absorbed the ethos of painting en plein air and the fascination with the unique Nordic coastal light that defined the Skagen school.

In Children Bathing by a Rocky Shore, Graf presents a sunlit scene of childhood innocence by the sea. A cluster of young children, entirely nude and unselfconscious, frolic in the calm, shallow water beside a rocky outcrop on the shore. Some stand ankle-deep at the water’s edge while others splash about or perch on warm sunlit rocks. Graf’s brushwork is loose yet assured, deftly capturing the fleeting motion of the figures and the sparkling play of light on the rippling water. The color palette is dominated by the clear blues of sky and sea, offset by the warm flesh tones of the children and the muted earth colors of stone; together with the lively handling of paint, these elements create an impression of radiant warmth, vitality, and immediacy.

Graf’s approach to this subject reflects both the influence of French Impressionism and the naturalist tendencies of his Nordic contemporaries. By the early 1890s, Scandinavian painters were increasingly embracing plein air subjects and depicting everyday life bathed in summer sunlight. Graf’s academic background gave him a solid foundation in draftsmanship, and his exposure to modern French painting encouraged a freer, more spontaneous technique, which he put into practice at Skagen. Notably, Skagen’s leading artist P. S. Krøyer painted his own version of this motif in 1892 – a study entitled En Flok Drenge ude i det solglitrende Vand (“A group of boys out in the glistening water”) – and the similarities between Krøyer’s composition and Graf’s are striking. Both works revel in the dazzling coastal light and depict children absorbed in playful motion, as if caught in a candid snapshot. It is tempting to imagine Graf and Krøyer working at their easels side by side on those bright summer days. Whether or not they did so, Graf’s canvas stands on its own as a testament to the plein air ideals they shared: spontaneity, truthful observation, and a celebration of nature’s radiant beauty.

Children Bathing by a Rocky Shore also belongs to a broader Nordic tradition of art that celebrated summer seaside life and the innocence of childhood at the turn of the century. In both Denmark and Sweden, artists found rich inspiration in coastal scenes, from fishermen at work to families and youngsters at play along the shore. Depictions of bathing children in particular embodied a sense of unspoiled purity and communal joy in nature. Graf’s portrayal of nude village children playing freely in the sea exemplifies this idealized vision of rural life, seemingly untouched by modern society.

At the same time, the painting’s high degree of naturalism (evident in the carefully observed anatomy of the figures and the truthful rendering of light and water) anchors it firmly in the realist and Impressionist currents of the 1880s and ’90s. In Sweden, for instance, painters such as Anders Zorn were likewise acclaimed for their ability to depict figures outdoors with vibrant color and palpable sunlight, reflecting a shared Scandinavian fascination with capturing the atmosphere of leisurely summer days by the water. Graf’s canvas, though less famous than those of some of his peers, is very much a part of this moment in Scandinavian art, bridging academic training and a modern, luminous pictorial style.

After 1892, Graf continued to travel and paint throughout Europe. He exhibited his work internationally, reportedly venturing as far as North Africa and the United States, and developed a diverse oeuvre ranging from sunlit genre scenes to atmospheric cityscapes. One of his later paintings, Månskensnatt, Brügge (“Moonlight Night, Bruges”) of 1901, entered the collection of the Gothenburg Museum of Art, attesting to the regard his art enjoyed in his lifetime. Indeed, works by Graf are held today in major collections such as Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, and Skagens Museum. Children Bathing by a Rocky Shore thus represents an early high point in the career of an artist who, though relatively obscure today, was an active figure in the Nordic art world at the turn of the twentieth century.