Bathing Woman, Seen from the Back
- Artist: Pierre Bonnard
- Date: c.1919
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 441 x 346 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
"This is 'Bathing Woman, Seen from the Back' by Pierre Bonnard, oil on canvas, c.1919." The figure is almost certainly Bonnard’s companion and future wife‑to‑be Marthe, his favourite model in domestic scenes. The painting shows her back as she bathes, a moment captured mid‑movement, typical of his interest in everyday gestures. He often photographed his models to use the images later when working in the studio, so you can feel the immediacy of the pose. Bonnard’s brushwork is loose and expressive; he focuses on how coloured light reflects off her skin and around the room. Notice the warm washes across the tiled floor and the subtle play of shadow in the background window. The colour palette is muted but rich—warm ochres, cool blues—that give a gentle, almost cinematic effect. In terms of composition, Bonnard uses a simple interior: a small washbasin and a doorway frame suggest domestic intimacy. The painting shows his early modern style before he shifted to brighter, more decorative phases later in the 1920s. It’s an example of how he combined observational study with painterly freedom, capturing both the physical presence and the atmospheric mood of the scene.
See it in person
Bathing Woman, Seen from the Back is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
