“Since the Greeks, the classical male nude pose has been contrapposto: weight on one leg, hips tilt, upper torso tilts the opposite direction, head back again. A zig-zag creates a balance, a stable dynamic equilibrium. Cézanne’s bather is a bit unstable. One leg seems to be coming forward, the other maybe in mid motion. The torso is a rather static chunk, arms and head above.

The landscape seems to exist to make almost a grid of counter planes, as if the man is related to the landscape, rather than being sculpturally self-contained. I made my bather in reverse perspective, and not facing the viewer. There is no real position from which he could be seen. One leg is like a ramrod, the top of the man a shifting disconnected mass. The sky is made of pushing and pulling planes, yet the ground recedes in ‘correct’ perspective. In my painting, there is a storm in the distance – Cézanne doesn’t do weather – and an airplane lets us know we are no longer in the 19th century.”
–MERNET LARSEN