The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 25, 2025

Nude in Bathtub

1912

Pierre Bonnard

(French, 1867–1947)

France, 20th century

graphite on beige wove paper

Sheet: 17.4 x 22.5 cm (6 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.)

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.124

Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Pierre Bonnard realized more than ten versions of this composition over the course of just under a decade.

Description

This drawing by Pierre Bonnard relates to a painting completed the same year depicting a woman bathing herself while crouched in a small tub. Both works belong to a series begun around 1908 in which the artist depicted his longtime partner, Marthe, cleaning herself, emphasizing each scene's intimacy and introspection. In this sketch, Bonnard focused on the dramatic contrast provided by natural light, which highlights his subject's back and thigh.

?-by 2008
Terrasse collection, Paris
2008-2020
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
2020-
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Chapin, Mary Weaver. "Pierre Bonnard." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 102-127. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 112-115; Mentioned: p. 254-257
Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
{{cite web|title=Nude in Bathtub|url=false|author=Pierre Bonnard|year=1912|access-date=25 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.124