La Toilette (Bazille)

La Toilette is an oil-on-canvas painting by the 19th century French impressionist artist Frédéric Bazille, executed in 1869–1870, which has been in the collection of the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France since 1968.

He chose a rather conventional theme of a nude woman in her bath, presumably in a Turkish harem, as hinted at by the oriental rug on the wall in the background, and the oriental design on the dress being held by one of the two servant women—a theme which he felt would be received positively by the head judge of the exhibition, Jean-Léon Gérôme, a noted Orientalist painter.

Bazille mentioned the painting in letters to his mother, telling her that he had located a "ravishing model" who was "ruinously expensive" and a "superb negress".

The figure on the right, fully clothed in a modern striped dress, is believed to have been Lise Tréhot, a Paris model and mistress of Bazille's fellow artist and friend Renoir.

At the time the painting was executed Bazille and Renoir shared a Paris studio in rue de la Condamine.