Emile René MÉNARD (1861/62-1930). Bathers at Cap Bénat (Var). Pastel signed lower right. Height : 61.5 cm - Width : 84 cm Antique handwritten label on the back mentioning the title and Havard framing in Paris. Note: a major figure in French neoclassicism, Emile René Ménard, the son of a painter-philosopher surrounded by the painters of the Barbizon School, was immersed in a humanist culture that sensitized him to nature. Inspired by Antiquity and the Old Masters, he developed an art in which nature and the human figure interact in a quest for harmony and serenity. Our work perfectly embodies this ideal, the scene featuring female bodies shaped by the glow of the setting sun.