A depiction that is both sensual and empathetic, it shows a moment from the Old Testament story related in 2 Samuel 11 in which King David sees Bathsheba bathing and, entranced, impregnates her.

While the scene of David spying on Bathsheba had been painted by earlier artists, Rembrandt's depiction differs in its tight pictorial focus and erotic vitality, achieved through broad, thick brushstrokes and vibrant coloration.

[6][7] The paint used to describe her figure is richly nuanced, its broad brushstrokes and strong highlights impart a vibrant tactile quality to the body, rendering her presence palpable.

[12] X-radiographs show that at some point late in the painting process, he lowered Bathsheba's head from its initial more upward angle, thereby increasing the sense of the figure's withdrawal into reverie.

[13] Initially she appeared to be looking out of the corner of her eye, as if watching David; in the present version her gaze is softened, in the general direction of her maid but focused on no particular object, imparting a feeling of solemnity and contemplation.

[11] Despite its classical references, the characterization of the figure is unconventional, and the depictions of her large stomach, hands and feet are derived from observation rather than respect for the idealised form.

[14] Alternatively, art historian Eric Jan Sluijter proposed that the figure could not have been painted directly from a posed model, given the anatomical discrepancies (an impossibly twisted left arm, the length of the right arm, an unnatural twist of the torso, and the elongated distance from breast to groin) and inconsistencies in perspective that indicate different parts of the figure are viewed from various vantage points.

[22] In "The medical enigma of Rembrandt's Bathsheba", Paolo Zamboni, a professor of vascular surgery at the University of Ferrara, claims to have solved the mystery of the model's breast.

Zamboni bases his claim on the similar appearance of the right breast of one of his own patients whose thrombophlebitis was confirmed by ultrasound, and whose mammography was negative for both cancer and mastitis.

Similar in size and format, Bazille's work shares some of the mood of the Rembrandt: according to critic Dianne Pitman, "not the unfolding of a specific narrative but the interplay of sensual effect and solemnity, blending realistic intimacy and dignified remoteness".

[33] The painting and its attempted theft forms the subject of "This One Goes to Eleven", a third-season episode of the Canadian television detective series Murdoch Mysteries.