After the Bath

Painted in 1910 and held at the Metropolitan Museum, this post-bath scene is among the earliest of Bonnard's major series depicting Marthe in the intimate post-bathing ritual. By 1910 Marthe's long bathing sessions had become both a domestic reality and an artistic preoccupation for Bonnard; the bathroom and post-bath drying figured as a sustained subject over the following four decades. The 1910 date places this work at the transition between his Nabi-influenced early manner and the fully chromatic approach of his mature phase. Post-bathing scenes allowed Bonnard to combine his interests in the female nude, private space, and the play of light on wet and damp surfaces.

Warm flesh tones and the creamy whites of towels are rendered against a richly coloured interior environment. Light reflected from wet skin creates luminous passages of varied white and cream. The handling is fluid, capturing the transient quality of the drying moment.