PIERRE BONNARD

Pierre Bonnard made a series of paintings of his wife Martha in the bath. He made her look youthful and highlighted areas of her beauty such as her rosy cheeks and flawless complexion, when in reality she was in her mid-fifties. You can get a sense of the intense love he had for her, painting her in this way with the beautiful pastel colours and her relaxed calm position. His wife Martha spent many hours in the bathroom: she may have had an illness such as tuberculosis or Obsessive Neurosis as water therapy is a popular treatment for these sorts of conditions.

A bath is such a personal space, you are venerable in a bath and I think that’s what drew Pierre Bonnard to paint her in this way, seeing his wife unwell would have made her seem venerable to him and delicate ,just as the painting shows her to be. He also draws her young because that is how he sees her.

I think this is a good way to show the human condition threw her vulnerability and the way this painting visually communicates the love he has for her. Showing relationship between two people with out painting them both is a smart way to de-personalize a very personal painting, it becomes more relatable because you are the person looking at her the way he sees her, in comparison to looking at a painting of a moment shared between two people.

I would like to try and paint people close to me, the way that I see them. Id like to try and paint my son with eyes full of curiosity and excitement in his eyes, id like to get his cheeky nature across without him appearing to do something that would give his personality away. Id like to paint my children how I see them in the morning, how they make me feel when I wake up. I will start with a painting of my daughter in the bath then I will try to move forward from that with a more individual idea of my own.