Estate of the artist
Private Collection, France
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 30, 1998, lot 28 
Private Collection, Germany (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1940-47 et supplément, 1887-1939, vol. IV, Paris, 1974, no. 01927, illustrated p. 271

Board is stable. There is a small area of surface loss at the extreme lower right corner. The surface of the board is visible in some places and appears slightly time-darkened. Under UV light: a thick layer of varnish makes the canvas difficult to read through. There do not appear to be any areas of retouching except for one nailhead-sized spot in the figure's left thigh. Overall the work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The central figure for this work is Marthe de Méligny, Bonnard's muse and model from the mid-1890s until the end of her life. Bonnard had met Marthe in Paris in 1893, and although they did not marry until 1925, she was his constant companion until her death in 1942. According to Charles Terrasse, the artist's nephew, "It is [Marthe] who appears in his pictures, early and later, more than anyone else: a woman of beautiful bodily proportions and peculiar gesture, fleeting and free, of which the great observer's eye would always catch a gesture, a movement, or an undulation in the light" (Charles Terrasse, Bonnard and his Environment, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1964, p. 16). Thadée Nathanson, Bonnard's friend and influential owner of the Parisian literary magazine La Revue Blanche, described the appearance of Marthe with the painter: "Close to him, in exiguous quarters, we saw fluttering that young woman, then still a child, with whom he spent his life. She already had, and kept, her wild look of a bird, her movement on tiptoe as though winged" (ibid., p. 16).

Atᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the end of the 19th century Bonnard first explored the theme of the female nude in a series of oil paintings that resonated with an explicit eroticism unique in his work. The emotional charge of these works continued to inform his later nudes, becoming the central feature of the interiors he painted during the 1910s, as in the present work.