Nude in an Interior
This conversation is connected to Nude in an Interior.
A nude woman stands in a narrow vertical sliver of space between two walls of color — a wide band of blue at the left and a wide band of golden-yellow wallpaper with pink floral patterns at the right. She is seen from behind, arms raised, her body barely visible between the two planes of color. Through the opening, a room is visible: a pink-dotted curtain or wallpaper, a small table or easel, a dark red patterned carpet or rug, and at the lower left, glass perfume bottles on a surface. The composition is radically compressed with the figure occupying maybe a fifth of the canvas width, and the rest is pattern, color, and surface. The blue wall, the yellow wallpaper, and the pink-red floor are all given equal weight. Bonnard painted Marthe (Marthe de Méligny) constantly, in baths, at mirrors, dressing, standing in doorways. She was his partner for nearly fifty years and his primary subject. He painted her body at the same age for decades, even as she aged.