Nu dans le bain

Nu dans le bain (Nude in the Bath) is one of Bonnard's most celebrated series, comprising some thirty paintings made between 1925 and 1946 of Marthe de Méligny in and around the bathtub at Le Bosquet. Marthe developed severe hypochondria through the 1920s and spent hours daily in the bath, a ritual that Bonnard transformed into one of the defining motifs of his late career. Art historians have debated whether these works reflect tender intimacy or the troubling documentation of a woman's compulsion, but formally they are among his most inventive compositions—the elongated tub creating a coffin-like form within which the nude body floats in water of intense, almost supernatural blue. This particular work is among the best known of the series and was acquired by the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris.

The composition is radically compressed, with the tub filling most of the picture plane and the nude body foreshortened within it. The water is rendered in an impossibly intense turquoise-blue that denies naturalistic observation in favor of chromatic expression. The surrounding bathroom tiles and floor are rendered in warm ochres and pinks that contrast sharply with the cold water. Paint is applied in varied, interlocking patches of color.