Having chosen Martha, Bonnard as the main model for her paintings, even after her muse left the earthly life, she did not forget about the attractiveness of her body. A year before the death of his wife, the artist proceeded to the next image of a nude Martha, whose figure has long been far from ideal.
“Naked in a bath” or “Lady with a dog in the bath” – the culmination of the series nude. A woman’s body, obviously not belonging to an elderly woman, seems to have dissolved in a vessel, and a simple room is filled with magical light, spread out on sparkling colors. Bonnard did not “spy” women’s nudity, like his colleagues in the shop, and although the scenes in his canvases are extremely frank, they are more aware of the presence of “official” relations between men and women.
The artist repeatedly created canvases with Martha bathing in the tub, and although the subjects of the paintings are similar in many respects, in each work there is a creative search, and they all have their own unique world. Bonnard’s wife paid much attention to water procedures, and there is no exact answer whether this is due to the desire to cure tuberculosis of the larynx, or to get relief from bouts of mental illness.
In the bathroom there is not a jealous woman, exhausted by mental and bodily illnesses, but a young, cleanly clean girl, the truth about which there are now some bright memories.
The work was created for five years, and was completed by the artist a year before his own death.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)