Matinée de Septembre is a controversial oil painting on canvas completed in 1911 by the French artist Paul Émile Chabas. Painted over several summers, it depicts a nude girl or young woman standing in the shallow water of a lake, prominently lit by the morning sun. She is leaning slightly forward in an ambiguous posture, which has been read variously as a straightforward portrayal of protecting her modesty, huddling against the cold, or sponge bathing. It has also been considered a disingenuous pose permitting the "fetishisation of innocence".
September Morn
A 1961 reproduction of the painting, showing the dominance of grays
The painter, Paul Émile Chabas, c. 1910
Anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock; his reaction to the painting promoted further controversy.
Paul Émile Chabas was a French painter and illustrator and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Chabas, circa 1897
Paul Chabas's September Morn, 1912, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
La Baigneuse, 1905–1910
A Lady