Bathers by a River, sixth (final) state, January – October (?) 1917

Unlike the bold transformations of 1916, in the last campaign of Bathers by a River, Matisse attended slowly to two specific areas of the canvas. On the left edge, he continued to work on the leaves, lightly scraping back paint, revealing earlier layers, reshaping the contours, and cleaning lines. He also revised the band between the third and fourth figures, adding a thin, white, brushy scumble of paint over the blue.

» More: Zoomify X-radiograph of Bathers by a River