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Lot Essay
Dating from 1907-1908, Femme, torse nu addresses a theme that would fascinate Pierre Bonnard for the rest of his career. Capturing a scene of domestic intimacy, the picture depicts a woman in semi-undress as she reaches for something on her dressing table. While the torso of the female nude is bathed in light, and the material gathers, ruffled at her waste creating a vivid, textural effect in the foreground of the canvas, the straight vertical lines of the door behind, introduces a subtle geometry into the picture. Framed by this, the woman’s gently curved figure is enhanced in its sensual, sinuous form rendered with a luminous intensity and heightened subjectivity that we associate so well with his works from this period. Femme, Torse nu depicts a daring combination of domestic portrait and interior.
Bonnard’s nudes, like those of Edgar Degas, aimed at depicting intimate moments of the domestic life of the time. Sensuous and voyeuristic, Femme, torse nu evokes the comforting, homely interior of a contemporary house and a daily, familiar activity. Indeed, many of Bonnard’s interior scenes were directly inspired by the space of the artist’s various houses and the model in many of his nudes was his muse, lifelong companion, and later wife, Marthe de Méligny (also known as Maria Boursin). While the heightened domesticity of the scene and the voyeuristic dimension introduce a certain idea of ‘nakedness’, the carefully arranged poses of the model and the contemplative nature of the image elevate the naked body to the absolute aspiration of a classical nude.
At the beginning of the 1900s, Bonnard had started to incorporate in his work direct references to the statuary of classical antiquity. The first work in which he did so was La sieste, executed in 1900, in which a naked woman languidly lies on a dishevelled bed. Her distinctive prostrate pose paid homage to The Hermaphrodite in the Musée du Louvre. Bonnard had certainly had occasion to admire that classical example, as he was an avid visitor to the Louvre, and as such introduced the harmony of the classical nude into the modern life of turn of the century Paris. This innovative and sensual approach to the female body was considered very progressive and yielded him great attention from key patrons of the time, brother and sister Leo and Gertrude Stein. Recognising Bonnard as a truly modern painter, the Stein’s hung La sieste in their apartment alongside works by Picasso.
Bonnard’s interest for classical antiquity may also have inspired the artist to search for a more sculptural quality in his nudes. In Femme, torse nu, the figure’s stance – vertical, yet subtly articulated in space – is reminiscent of that of a sculpture to be experienced in the round. This may have also been the result of Bonnard’s direct experimentation with sculpture at the time: in 1906, a year before the execution of Femme, torse nu, the artist had tried his hand at a series of sculpted nudes. Although short-lived, this experience may have informed Bonnard’s subsequent exploration of the nude in painting, imparting onto the subject a three-dimensional emphasis. Exploring a theme that would flourish in Bonnard’s late career, Femme, torse nu is an example of the intimate, domestic dimension the artist was able to confer to the rich tradition of the artistic nude.
Bonnard’s nudes, like those of Edgar Degas, aimed at depicting intimate moments of the domestic life of the time. Sensuous and voyeuristic, Femme, torse nu evokes the comforting, homely interior of a contemporary house and a daily, familiar activity. Indeed, many of Bonnard’s interior scenes were directly inspired by the space of the artist’s various houses and the model in many of his nudes was his muse, lifelong companion, and later wife, Marthe de Méligny (also known as Maria Boursin). While the heightened domesticity of the scene and the voyeuristic dimension introduce a certain idea of ‘nakedness’, the carefully arranged poses of the model and the contemplative nature of the image elevate the naked body to the absolute aspiration of a classical nude.
At the beginning of the 1900s, Bonnard had started to incorporate in his work direct references to the statuary of classical antiquity. The first work in which he did so was La sieste, executed in 1900, in which a naked woman languidly lies on a dishevelled bed. Her distinctive prostrate pose paid homage to The Hermaphrodite in the Musée du Louvre. Bonnard had certainly had occasion to admire that classical example, as he was an avid visitor to the Louvre, and as such introduced the harmony of the classical nude into the modern life of turn of the century Paris. This innovative and sensual approach to the female body was considered very progressive and yielded him great attention from key patrons of the time, brother and sister Leo and Gertrude Stein. Recognising Bonnard as a truly modern painter, the Stein’s hung La sieste in their apartment alongside works by Picasso.
Bonnard’s interest for classical antiquity may also have inspired the artist to search for a more sculptural quality in his nudes. In Femme, torse nu, the figure’s stance – vertical, yet subtly articulated in space – is reminiscent of that of a sculpture to be experienced in the round. This may have also been the result of Bonnard’s direct experimentation with sculpture at the time: in 1906, a year before the execution of Femme, torse nu, the artist had tried his hand at a series of sculpted nudes. Although short-lived, this experience may have informed Bonnard’s subsequent exploration of the nude in painting, imparting onto the subject a three-dimensional emphasis. Exploring a theme that would flourish in Bonnard’s late career, Femme, torse nu is an example of the intimate, domestic dimension the artist was able to confer to the rich tradition of the artistic nude.