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The side silhouette of a nude woman with pale skin is reflected along the edge of a tall, rectangular mirror in a room painted in tones of marigold orange, butter yellow, rose pink, peach, aquamarine blue, turquoise, and deep fuchsia in this vertical painting. The left edge of the woman is reflected along the right edge of the mirror, which takes up the left two-thirds of the composition. Only the side of the woman's head and ear, shoulder, arm, breast, hip, and her right leg are captured in the mirror. She holds the hand we can see up to her brown hair. The wall behind the mirror is papered with a pattern of pale pink flowers with mint-green leaves against a field of golden yellow. A pale turquoise rectangle extends into the room from the lower left corner of the canvas, and some perfume bottles sit beyond the far end. The floor of the room in the reflection is patterned with rounded, floral fuchsia-pink shapes against a lilac-purple background. A deep magenta field below an electric-blue band suggests paneling beneath a chair rail. The wall above is streaked with peach, pink, and yellow. A table to our left at the back of the room perhaps holds embroidery. The woman’s body is painted in tones of soft pink with cool blue shadows. The scene is painted with loose, visible brushstrokes so some of the detail is difficult to make out, and it takes time to puzzle out what the scene captures. The artist signed the work with red paint in the upper right corner: “Bonnard.”

Pierre Bonnard

Nude in an Interior, c. 1935

East Building, Ground Level — Gallery 103-E

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 134 × 70.5 cm (52 3/4 × 27 3/4 in.)

framed: 148.27 × 84.46 × 7.62 cm (58 3/8 × 33 1/4 × 3 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2006.128.8

Artists / Makers

Pierre Bonnard (painter) French, 1867 - 1947

Image Use

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Inscription

upper right with atelier stamp: Bonnard

Provenance

Estate of the artist and the Bowers family (heirs of Mme Pierre Bonnard). (Acquavlla Galleries, Inc., New York), in 1965. Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966;[1] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2006.

[1] The painting was lent to a 1966 exhibition of the Mellon collection at the NGA.

Associated Names

Acquavella Contemporary Art, Inc.
Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

1965: Pierre Bonnard, Acquavella Galleries, New York, 1965, no. 24, repro.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition 1941-1966. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 167, repro.

2012: Pierre Bonnard, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2015: Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947): Painting Arcadia, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Instituto de Cultura, Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2015-2016, no. 58, ill. 91 (French cat.); no. 32, cover and repro. (Spanish cat.); no. 97, repro. (English cat.).

2019: Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory, Tate, London; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen; BA-CA Kunstforum, Vienna, 2019 - 2020, unnumbered catalogue, repro.