For Picasso, 1937 is the year of Guernica (Madrid, Reina Sofia Art Center), executed in June for the Spanish pavilion at the International Exhibition. It is also the year of other experiments. In February of that year, the artist had taken up once again the theme of women bathers, which he had developed at the end of the 1920s. Somewhat later, he would represent this theme only with sculptures. Instead of playing ball or jumping in the air, the bathers are now contemplative and their bodies are arranged within an oval. This series was inspired by his muse and companion, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was omnipresent in the works of the 1930s, although Picasso was beginning to live with Dora Maar.

The painting represents a nude bather on the beach in a familiar pose. The exaggeration of the volumes and the rejection of anatomical fidelity are striking. Feet and hands are not at all in proportion to the impersonal face. The contours drawn with charcoal add an even greater density to the body, while the modeling is highlighted with white pastel. The emphatic frontality of the figure turns the space behind it into a mere backdrop. An India ink drawing (Paris, Picasso Museum), also dated February 10th, reveals that the artist made a rapid sketch of the composition. Bathers with a Toy Boat (Venice, collection Peggy Guggenheim), which was done two days later, takes up the same bather, holding a small sailboat and associated to another figure.