Nude Washing Feet in a Bathtub

Nude Washing Feet in a Bathtub from 1924 depicts a specific domestic action — the washing of feet — that brings the nude's bodily self-attention to its most concentrated and particular form. Bonnard frequently isolated specific gestures of bodily care: the washing of hair, the drying of skin, the examination of a foot. These specific gestures resist the generalized nudity of the academic tradition and root the figure in the actual experience of embodied life. The 1924 date places this in the heart of Bonnard's most chromatic period, when his color was at its most intense and least naturalistic. The painting is not publicly attributed to a collection, suggesting private ownership.

The bending posture of the figure creates a complex arrangement of forms that Bonnard resolves through color rather than draftsmanship — patches of warm skin tone against the blue-white of the tub and water. The foreshortening is resolved coloristically rather than through conventional illusionistic perspective.