Pierre Bonnard

Louis Carré, Paris
JPL Fine Arts, London
Mr. J. Dellal (until at least 1998)
Neffe-Degandt Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above

London, Hayward Gallery, Bonnard at Le Bosquet, 1994, no. 41
London, Tate Gallery, Bonnard, 1998, no. 110, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Executed on cream colored wove paper affixed to a window mat around the perimeter on verso. Top, left and bottom edges are deckled. Medium is well preserved and the colors are bright and fresh. Artist pinholes at all four corners. Some nicks to the sheet around the perimeter and one or two small repaired tears, also around the perimeter. Studio stains on the verso. Loss to the top edge near upper left corner, not visible when framed. Good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

La Baignoire, executed in 1942, is an exquisite rendition of the most important subject of Bonnard's mature career. From the turn of the century until his death, the artist continuously returned to depicting the female figure in the intimate setting of the bathroom. Executed in luminous tones of yellows and pinks, the present work is a superbly rare work on paper. Bonnard’s female figures were usually posed in domestic settings in various states of undress—preparing for or after their bath. Commenting on the present work, Sargy Mann has described it as being: "an exceptional work in Bonnard’s oeuvre; a gouache completely reworked in pastel" (quoted in Bonnard at Le Bosquet (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London, 1994, p. 93). 

In La Baignoire Bonnard has created a strong composition by cropping the scene to focus on his main subject, his female sitter. The surface of the sheet is enlivened by the decorative pattern created by the curtain which creates a foil for the chequered tiles in the background and the scintillating body of the figure emerging in the foreground. Between these bold designs, the bather is interposed; her body refracted by the water, her nudity emphasized and sensualized. As stated by Sarah Whitfield in her discussion of Bonnard’s art: "Bonnard’s paintings are about the intimacy of contact: the contact made by the eye and the hand, the contact of light as it catches of brushes a surface, the intimacy of the contact between painter and paint" (quoted in Bonnard (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London & The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 25). The voyeurism of the present work and the exploration of the nude in the bathroom, an interest in the unselfconscious woman in her own domestic space, is element in Bonnard’s work shared with the iconic interpretations of Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

La Baignoire is one of eleven gouaches commissioned by Louis Carré in 1942 for a set of lithographs put onto stone created by Jacques Villon between 1942 and 1946.