From crashing waves and serene river scenes to sublime lilies in a pond, artists have long focused their masterworks on water's refreshing, purifying and revivifying essence.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ J. Schmitt-Tegge
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Water in art: creative refreshment across the centuries
Water is a fascinating subject for artists. How best to capture waves, ripples and reflections, how to paint eddying, swirling, translucent water? A refreshing art tour across the centuries.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TopFoto
Medieval fountain of youth
Lucas Cranach the Elder painted this opulent 1546 bathing scene. It shows older ladies entering the water on the left and emerging on the right as young women to enjoy dance, music and fine food. In the Middle Ages, people believed in the healing effect of various bath additives, while some were said to also promote sensual pleasures following a bath.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Too tall to surf
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a woodblock print created around 1830 by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, has gained such fame that it even exists in the form of an emoji. Part of a series of landscapes the artist created later in life at around the age of 70, it is one of the world's most famous art designs.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Cooling off by the river
In 1884, French post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat depicted a group of young men bathing in the Seine on a hot summer day. The bridge in the Paris suburb of Asniere-sur-Seine is visible in the background. Seurat tries to capture the heat on the riverbank with hazy light, the almost white sky, the languid, silent figures as they looll about the water's edge.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Naked in Provence
Bathers were among the favorite motifs of French impressionist Paul Cezanne. Unlike the quiet men in Seurat's painting, Cezanne's 1874 portrait of bathing women shows ladies clearly having a good time in the sparkling blue river water; while the fact they're nude shows they are bathing among themselves. Back in the day, this nude bathing image did not have to content with Facebook censorship.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Classic water lilies
Claude Monet was over the age of 50 and not doing well financially when he planted his garden in Giverny – which inspired the motif for his most famous series of paintings. From then on, he painted every corner of his garden, including water lilies in various formats. The above painting is dated 1915, and the unusually large water lily picture of 2 by 12 meters is on display in New York's MoMa.
Image: Gemeinfrei
Cool blue
David Hockney created a whole series of swimming pool paintings in the 1970s, usually of his own pool overlooking the Los Angeles hills. After the British artist's move to California, this patio and his house were the center of the artist's existence. For a long time he was loathe to leave his poolside paradise.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TopFoto
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There's no better place on sweltering summer days than to be by the water. As a relentless heatwave grips Europe, people are flocking to tranquil bays by the sea, clear freshwater lakes, burbling streams, or even public swimming pools.
Artists, too, have been inspired to depict refreshing water scenes over the centuries. Medieval paintings show bathers romping naked in a pool, while modern artists like David Hockney have focused on shimmering suburban swimming pools.
Click though the above picture gallery to explore some famous water-related artworks.
