The light in this painting is pearly. This pearly light glows on the skin of the subjects and flickers on the surface. It diffuses a pleasant glow on everything as if the world radiated rather than reflected light.
There are smokestacks in the background. One of them (center) is diffusing smoke high into the air. Its darker blue seems to diffuse innocuously into the general mist of the foreground.
The river has many bathers on its modest, grassy banks and beaches. This is urbanized nature, thanks in part to the not-so-distant smokestacks. The bathers have come to the river for a temporary break. The swimmers wear their underwear, or their swimsuits under their clothes, to save time. Others sit or lie on the bank in their summer suits.
This does not seem to be a day at the beach but more likely a break in the work day. Ordinary life taps the bathers in their shoulders. They respond to this tapping in various ways.
The three young bathers in the foreground may have come here together. They are associated by their proximity in the composition and the bold reds and golds of their hair and bathing clothes. The boy sitting on the bank with his feet in the water seems to be the eldest. He slouches and looks out at the water from beneath shaggy ginger bangs. His flat hair suggests that he wore his hat to the beach, then removed it. If he notices the younger boy making farting noises with his hands and mouth directly in front of him, he doesn't let on. The eldest boy is stealing time from encroaching pressures and responsibilities, which might include looking after his younger companions. He no longer feels young enough to make impish farting noises or stare down wonderingly into the water (as the third, possibly youngest bather does). His visit to the river is desultory. He doesn't want to remember being that carefree or consider that loss.
But this teenaged bather is not the only one sitting in solitude on this busy beach at mid-day. The children are immersed in their own separate worlds of play, and the adults are in various states of solitary repose. One exception is the man whose proximity with his dog suggests intimacy. In this painting, human socializing is a spectator sport enacted by others across the water. Figures on skiffs or sailboats might be interacting, but the figures closest to us are not. Several of our sunbathers are doing similar things by lying or sitting and looking at the water; but even that focus is not unanimous among the bathers. One of them, in the background, lies on his stomach facing away from the river.
In a crowded place, peaceful solitude is an art. These are Parisians, people who know how to live and make the most of a meagre mid-day break. The adult figures in the painting (stacked vertically along our left) have learned that art. They have cultivated this repose over generations.
The casual triangle formed by the figures from top left to bottom right gives the scene remarkable stability and stillness. It is always the quiet stillness of midsummer noon in this painting. Modernity is looming, but humans can cultivate themselves in Nature's generosity, perhaps enough to figure out what to do about those smokestacks.
