Sombre Nude

Sombre Nude from 1941, held at the Musée Maillol in Paris, belongs to the final years of Bonnard's career, painted during the German occupation of France when he was living in the South. Marthe de Méligny had died in 1942 (or very close to this date), and the late works carry a quality of elegy, of continuing to paint a figure who had been his subject for over forty years. The title's adjective — 'sombre' — acknowledges directly what many of the later nudes imply: a darkening of mood, a heavier palette, the light less golden and more uncertain. This late canvas is among the most emotionally direct of the series.

The characteristically warm Bonnard palette is modified here toward deeper, cooler tones, giving the figure a heavier, more grounded presence than in the sun-drenched canvases of the 1920s. The paint application remains tactile and richly layered.