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Lot Essay
Painted in 1928, Nu au radiateur is a colourful, disarming nude that appears to show the artist's wife, Marthe, in an intriguingly intimate and domestic situation. In this contemplative painting, Bonnard has revisited the deliberately unposed atmosphere of his Nabi-period intimisme; however, it here finds flesh in a scintillating colourist incarnation. The picture shows the deep understanding of colour, light and composition that mark the greatest of Bonnard's works, and which would come to influence artists from his contemporary Henri Matisse to Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko. This is especially evident in the radiator itself, which conveys not only a sense of reality grounded very much in the real world but also provides a compositional counterpoint to the organic form of the woman herself. The vertical stripes of the heater have a rigid formality that brings about a deep contrast with the curves and colour of the flesh, and one can see a similar device reappear in the tiles in the background of Matisse's Le grand nu gris, painted the next year. In Nu au radiateur, Bonnard has used this technique to instil beauty and meaning into a scene of a daily routine: 'Everything has its moment of beauty. Beauty is the fulfillment of seeing. Seeing is fulfilled by simplicity and order. Simplicity and order are produced by dividing legible surfaces, grouping compatible colors, etc' (Bonnard, quoted in A. Terrasse, 'Bonnard's Notes,' pp. 51-70, Bonnard: The Late Paintings, ed. S.M. Newman, exh.cat., New York, 1984, p. 69).
The presence of this modern radiator that recalls the metallic tubs in Bonnard's celebrated bath paintings, although this Degas-like stolen moment of drying speaks of a greater intimacy. As in those works, Nu au radiateur appears to show Marthe during part of her almost ritual cleansing. Marthe had already been ill for a long time, and it has often been speculated that her extensive toilette was often a form of hydrotherapy, hence the amount of time that she spent in the bath, and the number of times that Bonnard depicted her there. This adds a strange poignancy to these colourful, light scenes of domestic intimacy. Interestingly, by the late 1920s, the pair had been together for three decades, and Marthe had been ill for two. Despite this, she appears eternally fresh and young in his paintings. In Nu au radiateur, the artist is therefore perhaps allowing his mind and his eye to cast back to happier, earlier times, bathing in a youthful warmth of feeling that he translates to the viewer.
The presence of this modern radiator that recalls the metallic tubs in Bonnard's celebrated bath paintings, although this Degas-like stolen moment of drying speaks of a greater intimacy. As in those works, Nu au radiateur appears to show Marthe during part of her almost ritual cleansing. Marthe had already been ill for a long time, and it has often been speculated that her extensive toilette was often a form of hydrotherapy, hence the amount of time that she spent in the bath, and the number of times that Bonnard depicted her there. This adds a strange poignancy to these colourful, light scenes of domestic intimacy. Interestingly, by the late 1920s, the pair had been together for three decades, and Marthe had been ill for two. Despite this, she appears eternally fresh and young in his paintings. In Nu au radiateur, the artist is therefore perhaps allowing his mind and his eye to cast back to happier, earlier times, bathing in a youthful warmth of feeling that he translates to the viewer.