Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath, 1937, oil on canvas. Bonnard was one of the founding members of Le

Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath, 1937, oil on canvas. Bonnard was one of the founding members of Les Nabis (the prophets) as an artist he found inspiration in the stark schematic outlines of painters like Gauguin. As well as this he was drawn to the formal compositions and purity of colour depicted in Japanese woodblock prints. All of this culminates in ‘Nude in a Bath’ an intimate subject but executed in a highly stylised manner. Here Bonnard rejects depth and perspective and uses a palette of unnatural warm and cool colours, blending the nude into her surroundings and the interior into the world beyond the window. The effect is unusually mythic and otherworldly.