oil on canvas, 131×85 cm
signed and dated lower right P. Conti 1922
The diagonally moved spatial frame is a typical Conti motif, dating back to his youthful still lifes, and it also forms the basis of the work After the Bath. It's a curious exercise with no other parallels in this form, although it's a collection of episodes, movements, and details characteristic of the artist, found primarily in drawings and graphic exercises. On the other hand, it exemplifies Conti's vast culture and his willingness to revisit it according to his momentary whims and personal moods: from the interiors of Dutch painting to the seventeenth-century works of La Tour or Florentine Mannerism, all the way to the paintings of the Macchiaioli and contemporaries of Manet and Picasso. But it's clear that the painter is searching for a tone, and in this case he finds it in a touch of the imponderable absurd.
