Femme au tub

A pioneering figure of the Post-Impressionist group, Les Nabis, Pierre Bonnard played a pivotal role in the artistic landscape’s transition from the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. Bonnard is recognized as one of the most secular-minded of the Nabi painters. Many of his contemporaries reflected their spiritual nature with paint on canvas as they pursued religious themes and motifs, whereas Bonnard sought to explore familiar subjects observed from his urban and domestic quotidian, reflecting the habits of everyday life.
Bonnard once said, “I have all my subjects at hand. I go visit them. I take notes. And before I start to paint, I meditate, daydream [...] It is the things close at hand that give an idea of the universe as the human eye sees it” (quoted in D. Amory, ed., Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors, New York, 2009, p. 61).
Known for a range of subjects, Bonnard drew inspiration from people, interiors, and landscapes that existed within his orbit. Exercising his creative sensibilities, Bonnard transformed ordinary spaces into reminiscent atmospheres, anchored at the intersection of his imagination and reality.
At the crux of Bonnard’s gaze and artistic inspiration is his long-term muse and later wife, Marthe. She can be identified as a central character within many of Bonnard’s domestic interiors. Clothed or in the nude, the artist immortalized Marthe’s youthful form from various perspectives and attitudes.
With its vivacious color palette and thick painterly quality, Femme au tub, is emblematic of Bonnard’s lifelong infatuation and devotion to his wife, Marthe. Quiet but impactful, the work depicts an intimate moment from the couple’s life together. She faces away, kneeling in a bathtub as she goes about her daily ablutions.