Young Woman in Black Stockings

For the next four Sundays we will be presenting the masterpieces from the exhibition "Bonnard/Vuillard. The collection of Zeïneb and Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière" held at the Musée Bonnard. Until September 17th the exhibition will present the paintings and drawings from the private collection of Zeïneb & Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière which is now owned by the Musée d’Orsay. Enjoy! :)

26-year-old Pierre Bonnard met Marthe, who became his favorite model and afterwards, his wife. That encounter entirely changed his life and works. The nude appears in his painting and soon becomes its main subject and a medium of his deepest reflection on the body and the space. 

In this painting, Marthe is very young, she’s only 24. Bonnard has just met her and the painting is one of his first nudes. Young Woman in Black Stockings combines eroticism and prudishness.

Marthe’s figure is fragile, her body is still one of a teenager. Her hair is tousled and, because the bed is unmade, suggests that she’s waking up. In the foreground, the blurred and flimsy white sheets merge with the nightshirt she’s disorderly taking off.

Bonnard will continue to present naked Marthe for more than 50 years, yet in his paintings she doesn’t seem to get older. She doesn’t pose; Bonnard always captures moments of her everyday life. In her gestures and moves, he finds his own sources of inspiration. He keeps observing her and secretly appropriating her expression, motion, and attitude. 

This intimate small-format scene will be recreated by Bonnard in a series of drawings and will illustrate many publications, including Parallèlement by Paul Verlaine, and Marie, a novel by Peter Nansen.