The Bath, Second Version (Le Bain [deuxième planche])

Here, Pierre Bonnard employs the high vantage point and candid, unidealized approach to the female nude pioneered by his compatriot Degas. Bonnard, however, presents his bather frontally, seated in a full-length bathtub, a luxury not found in many French homes during Degas’s time. His model was his wife, Marthe, whose skin malady required long soaks.