Hip Bath
- Artist: Frederick Etchells
- Date: c. 1911-12
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the Hip Bath by Frederick Etchells, a daring oil on canvas from about 1911‑12. The scene is deceptively simple: a single figure perched in a bath that is oddly flattened, almost as if the artist cut the space out of a page and left the edges unfinished. Etchells was pushing against the Victorian restraint of his time, and the result looks almost comic—yet that’s intentional.
It first showed in 1912 when Etchells was rubbing elbows with Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury artists. Fry bought the painting that year and proudly displayed it in his home, Durbins, just outside Guildford. The next year Etchells joined Fry’s Omega workshop, a collaborative studio aimed at breaking from academic traditions. However, he left Omega to help form a rival group led by writer‑artist Wyndham Lewis, reflecting a split in the avant‑garde scene.
The painting’s rough edges and stylised figure offended many contemporary critics. One called it an attempt to “merely play the clown and lose all sense of responsibility.” In modern eyes, though, that very irreverence feels refreshingly bold. The flattened bath invites you to imagine a new spatial logic, and the unfinished surface almost seems like a snapshot of the artist’s process. It’s a small canvas packed with defiance, reminding us that art can be both playful and provocative.
See it in person
Hip Bath hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
