Nu au tub

Nu au tub (Nude at the Tub) belongs to the same extended series as Nu dans le bain and Nu accroupi au tub, depicting Marthe de Méligny at the bathtub that became one of Bonnard's most sustained subjects. 'At the tub' rather than 'in the bath' suggests a figure at the tub's edge—standing, crouching, or bending—caught in the transitional moment of bathing ritual rather than the repose of immersion. These edge-of-tub positions gave Bonnard more complex foreshortening problems and allowed him to show the full relationship between figure and tub within the tiled bathroom space that he had turned into one of the most personally resonant environments in his work.

The nude figure at the tub's edge creates a complex arrangement of warm body against the white enamel of the tub and the cool blue of the water within. Bonnard renders flesh tones through a warm palette of ochre, pink, and cream, placing violet or blue-green shadows in the body's recesses. The geometry of the tub and bathroom tiles provides spatial structure around the organic figure.