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PAG2-watts-greek-poetry-jpg

This halftone reproduction is of a painting Watts painted circa 1875. The image depicts men bathing at the ocean. The focal figure is a man on the left side of the image sitting on a stone outcropping on top of a cliff looking down at the ocean. His chest is facing the viewer; his body below is in three-quarter profile, and his head is in profile, as he gazes down at the bathers. He leans back on his right arm and raises his left hand up to his chin. Below this figure and to the right are a group of four nude male figures linked arm-in arm, facing right, and walking along the shore. The ocean is painted in a way that breaks perspective conventions, with the ocean pictured as a wall of water reaching up to cover two-thirds of the background, allowing the viewer to see underwater. In the water, directly behind the group of men on the right, is a group of bodies swimming underwater. At the top of the image another figure is diving into the water. The body of this diver is unclear and appears as a dark brush stroke reaching into the sea. In the water where the diver has landed, several other men are swimming in the water. Their bodies intertwine and remain unclear in an impressionistic way.