There are enough bathing scenes in the present show at Tate Modern of 200 works by Pierre Bonnard to leave you feeling squeaky clean. Suffused with light and colour, the endless domestic views of his wife Martha de Meligny dressing, undressing and washing and of sun kissed gardens and interiors, suggest a blissful married life. But far from it – Bonnard was as close to conflict as it is possible to be. Having married beneath himself, his social life was difficult. Martha suffered from endless ailments for which she was prescribed the baths.
His refusal to be drawn into the melting pot of new art movements led to the scorn of many contemporaries, notably Picasso, who labelled him ‘a decadent, at the end of an old idea’. Were Bonnard painting today, it’s conceivable his works would be showing in a provincial gallery. But instead he is revered; for his subtle layering of colour that defies analysis; for the strange perspectives seen with a photographer’s eye; for the air of mystery that pervades these ordinary domestic scenes.
Until May 6th at Tate Modern, London, UK
www.tate.org.uk
