Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pierre-bonnard-781" aria-label="More by Pierre Bonnard" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pierre Bonnard</a>
Bath
Presented by Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill through the Contemporary Art Society 1930
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
bath
bathroom
Bonnard, Marthe
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
domestic
female
France
furnishings
individuals: female
interiors
lying down
named individuals
nudes
objects
Paris, Boulevard des Batignolles
people
places
portraits
washing / drying
woman
<p>This is one of a series of paintings that Bonnard made of his wife Marthe in the bath. Though she was in her mid-fifties, the artist depicts her as a young woman. Marthe spent many hours in the bathroom: she may have had tuberculosis, for which water therapy was a popular treatment, or she may have had an obsessive neurosis. The bath, cut off at both ends, and the structure of the wall create a rigorously geometric composition. The effect is strangely lifeless, and almost tomb-like; as if the painting were a silent expression of sorrow for Marthe's plight.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
8 October 2001 – 13 January 2002
2002-01-13
8 October 2001 – 13 January 2002
2002-01-13
2001-10-08
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
2001-10-08
Form; The Classical Ideal in Modern Art
Loan-out
2 February 2006 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
2 February 2006 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
2006-02-02
Musée d’Art moderne de Paris (Paris, France)
2006-02-02
Pierre Bonnard
Loan-out
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
15 September 2007 – 31 March 2009
2009-03-31
2007-09-15
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2007-09-15
Bathers
Collection based display
1 June 2011 – 30 September 2011
2011-09-30
1 June 2011 – 30 September 2011
2011-09-30
2011-06-01
Le Musée Bonnard au Cannet (Le Cannet, France)
2011-06-01
Bonnard au Cannet. Dans la lumière de la Méditerranée
Loan-out
14 October 2011 – 13 May 2012
2012-05-13
29 January 2012 – 13 May 2012
2012-05-13
2012-01-29
Fondation Beyeler (Riehen/Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.beyeler.com
2011-10-14
Pierre Bonnard. Another Modernity
Loan-out
16 March 2015 – 15 May 2016
2016-05-15
16 March 2015 – 19 July 2015
2015-07-19
2015-03-16
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
19 September 2015 – 10 January 2016
2016-01-10
2015-09-19
Fundacíon Mapfre (Madrid, Spain)
6 February 2016 – 15 May 2016
2016-05-15
2016-02-06
Legion of Honor (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.legionofhonor.org
2015-03-16
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). Painting Arcadia
Loan-out
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
13 July 2018 – 28 October 2018
2018-10-28
2018-07-13
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
10 November 2023 – 14 April 2024
2024-04-14
2023-11-10
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
23 November 2024 – 3 March 2025
2025-03-03
2024-11-23
Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, USA)
http://www.worcesterart.org
1 April 2025 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
2025-04-01
External
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
20 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
2019-01-06
20 October 2018 – 6 January 2019
2019-01-06
2018-10-20
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2018-10-20
Nashashibi/Skaer: Thinking through other artists
Exhibition
23 January 2019 – 12 January 2020
2020-01-12
23 January 2019 – 6 May 2019
2019-05-06
2019-01-23
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
6 June 2019 – 22 September 2019
2019-09-22
2019-06-06
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, Denmark)
10 October 2019 – 12 January 2020
2020-01-12
2019-10-10
Kunstforum Wien (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.kunstforum-wien.at
2019-01-23
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
Exhibition
6 June 2019 – 12 January 2020
2020-01-12
6 June 2019 – 22 September 2019
2019-09-22
2019-06-06
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, Denmark)
10 October 2019 – 12 January 2020
2020-01-12
2019-10-10
Kunstforum Wien (Vienna, Austria)
http://www.kunstforum-wien.at
2019-06-06
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
Loan-out
The Bath
support: 860 × 1206 mm
frame: 1079 × 1438 × 116 mm
Presented by Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill through the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1930
<p>This is one of a series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> that Bonnard made of his wife Marthe in the bath. Though she was in her mid-fifties, the artist depicts her as a young woman. Marthe spent many hours in the bathroom: she may have had tuberculosis, for which water therapy was a popular treatment,  or she may have had an obsessive neurosis. The bath, cut off at both ends, and the structure of the wall create a rigorously geometric <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. The effect is strangely lifeless, and almost tomb-like; as if the painting were a silent expression of sorrow for Marthe's plight. </p>
Display caption
2004-08-27T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Pierre Bonnard</b> 1867-1947</p>
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonnard-the-bath-n04495" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04495</span></a> <b>Baignoire or Le Bain</b> (The Bath) 1925</p>
<p>Not inscribed 
<br/>Oil on canvas, 33 7/8 x 47 1/2 (86 x 120.5) approximately; the painted area is not a perfect rectangle 
<br/>Presented by Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill through the CAS 1930 
</p><p><i>Prov</i>: With Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (purchased from the artist, 7 December 1925); Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill, London, 1927 
</p><p><i>Exh: Salon d'Automne, Paris, September-November 1925 (140) as 'Baignoire'; <i>The CAS: Second Loan Exhibition of Foreign Paintings</i>, M. Knoedler, London, February 1928 (52); <i>Acquisitions of the CAS</i>, Tate Gallery, September-October 1946 (7); <i>Paintings by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard</i>, RSA, Edinburgh, August-September 1948 (27, repr.); <i>Bonnard</i>, Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London, June 1950 (5, repr.); <i>Pierre Bonnard</i>, RA, London, January-March 1966 (177, repr.) 
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Jean and Henry Dauberville, <i>Bonnard</i> (Paris 1973), No.1334, Vol.3, p.271, repr. 
<br/><i>Repr: L'Amour de l'Art</i>, VI, 1925, p.357; André Fermigier, <i>Pierre Bonnard</i> (London 1970), p.127 in colour</i></p>
<p>Bonnard painted a number of pictures of women bathing, the later examples becoming increasingly richer and more elaborate in colour. The woman in this picture is probably Marthe Bonnard.</p>
<p>As he habitually worked with his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a> pinned to the wall instead of mounted on a stretcher, it sometimes happened, as in this case, that the painted area was not a perfect rectangle.</p>
<p><b>Published in</b>: 
<br/>Ronald Alley, <i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.67-8, reproduced p.67</p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults bath bathroom Bonnard, Marthe cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents domestic female France furnishings individuals: female interiors lying down named individuals nudes objects Paris, Boulevard des Batignolles people places portraits washing / drying woman