Le Bain. The Bath. (Deuxieme Planche. Version No 2) by Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947

Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947
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Le Bain. The Bath. (Deuxieme Planche. Version No 2)

Original lithograph in black ink. 1924. Signed in pencil. One of the rare first impressions, hand-signed and before the printed monogram and signature. 35 impressions in black ink, as here, and 10 impressions in sanguine ink are recorded in this form. Drawn and printed at the studio of Duchatel, Paris 1924. Commissioned by Edmond Frapier for the ‘Album des Peintres-Lithographes de Manet à Matisse’ Paris 1925. Rare in pencil signed impressions, as here.
(Note: The subsequent edition for the album, with the printed monogram and printed signature, was 525 impressions; however a very large percentage of this edition was destroyed by a bomb in 1945 during the War)
Ref: Bouvet - Bonnard L’Oeuvre Gravé no 92.a

Superb impression. On off-white Montval-type laid paper. Excellent condition. With the blindstamp of the publishers - ‘Galerie des Peintres-Graveurs’. Sheet: 367 x 275mm. Image approx: 313 x 208mm. 12 ¼ x 8 1/8ins.

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A rare pencil signed proof of one of the most beautiful works in the whole of Bonnard's print oeuvre.

The theme of 'The Bath' is one which absorbed Bonnard throughout his life. The earliest studies on the theme date from the 1890's and he continued to paint and draw such subjects in the 1940's. Almost without exception the subject of these studies is Marthe (whose real name was Maria Boursin). Bonnard met her in 1893, when she was working in a shop, and she became his lifelong companion (although they did not marry until 1925). He always said that she was his inspiration, and even in the late works for the 1940's he continued to portray her as the slight young girl he had first met.

The compositions of ‘The Bath' are, like so much of Bonnard's art, studies in light and in the way that light influences our appreciation of form and contour. 'Le Bain' is conceived as an overall pattern of light out of which emerges the shape of the bathtub, the form of the girl as she bends forward to wash, the reflections in the room from the water. Bonnard's art was also always about the expression of quiet domestic emotion, about the intimacy of a moment or of a minor incident of life. It is perhaps the most beautiful aspect of 'Le Bain', above, that as Marthe sits in the tub, absorbed in her thoughts, we can feel the expression on her face even though it is completely hidden from our view.

Bonnard's interest in lithography as a medium was developed with his Nabis friends, Vuillard, Roussel, Denis etc., in the early 1890's. In 1923/4 it again became a cental concern as a medium, but in this period working in monochrome rather than colour. He found that in the single tone of black (or occasionally sanguine) ink he intensify the effects of soft light patterns. Brilliantly inventive in how he approached the actual drawing he used a wide variety of chalk strengths and densities and also made extremely subtle and effective use of scraper work to make highlights, as in Marthe's hair in this study. 'Le Bain' is a truly example of his inspiration in the use of lithography as a drawing medium.