Victorian academic painters loved doing scenes set in antique Roman or Oriental baths -- it was a respectable way of showing lots of women in various stages of undress. The casual, languorous poses of these women would have seemed shocking in a modern setting or unseemly in mythological or allegorical images. One of the things that was radical about the Impressionists was their depiction of nudity in naturalistic ways, in ordinary settings. The academics had it both ways -- their settings could say, by implication, "Modern European women don't look or act this way with their clothes off," but everyone knew (or suspected, or hoped) differently. The hypocrisy added a little spice to the proceedings -- wink, wink . . . nudge, nudge. It seems a bit silly now, but a bit charming, too.