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Marthe Bonnard was vilified by artist’s family as antisocial and paranoid. Now a study claims class and money were their motives
French painter Pierre Bonnard’s colourful celebrations of the bathing body of his wife and muse Marthe are among his most recognisable images, many of them on display at last year’s popular Tate exhibition. From his early illustrations of the 1890s to the large, sun-filled canvases he made in the 1940s, she is the focus of the scene. Yet art historians have frequently emphasised the artist’s bad luck in landing such a difficult, sickly spouse, even suggesting she spent most of her time prone in a bathtub.
Now documents uncovered by a British academic tell a different story about the life of the auburn-haired Frenchwoman who Bonnard met while she was working in a flower shop in 1893. The new findings, published by The Conversation website, shed a fresh light on their relationship, on the famous paintings, and on the financial motivations behind those who first sought to damage his wife’s reputation. Continue reading...