Bonnard intime - Marthe at her Toilette

Catalogue of the exhibition Bonnard intime. Marthe at her Toilette, on display at the Musée Bonnard, Le Cannet (27 June – 31 October 2026).

Regarded as one of the greatest colourists of the 20th century, Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), through his nudes at their dressing tables, offers a vision of the world that is both enchanted and disenchanted.

Following in the footsteps of Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard reinvented the depiction of women at their dressing tables – and that of Marthe in particular – asserting his modernity with great force.

For him, this subject raises pictorial issues of form and colour, space and memory, framing, the interplay of mirrors and gazes, inviting this intimate space—the bathroom—to subvert reality and reinvent itself within a magnified everyday life.

The unique relationship that Bonnard maintained with Marthe throughout his life left its mark on his work, inevitably lending a distinctive and singular tone to his painting. Published to mark the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this subject, this catalogue fosters fascinating dialogues between paintings, gouaches, watercolours, ink and pencil drawings, and photographs.

Contents
Painters and the Bathroom. From Impressionism to the early 20th century – the birth of a modern subject
Isabelle de Navas

In Bonnard’s Bathroom
Véronique Serrano

CATALOGUE
Entry texts by Véronique Serrano

Supplementary material

English Texts