Pierre Bonnard
Study for 'Femme Enfilant ses bas'', 1893
India ink on paper
9 x 13cm
12964
Copyright The Artist
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Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947, France) was a leading figure of the Nabis, the avant-garde group formed in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century alongside artists such as Édouard Vuillard,...
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947, France) was a leading figure of the Nabis, the avant-garde group formed in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century alongside artists such as Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier. Influenced by Japanese prints, Bonnard developed a highly personal approach to composition, characterised by flattened space, unexpected cropping and an intimate observation of everyday life. From the early 1890s, domestic interiors and private moments became central to his work, anticipating the intimate scenes for which he would later become celebrated.
Executed in 1893, Study for “Femme enfilant ses bas” belongs to a series of drawings and paintings in which Bonnard explored the motif of a young woman putting on her black stockings. The present drawing can be understood as a preparatory study within this broader investigation of the subject, which Bonnard developed through several compositions and techniques between 1893 and 1900. Related works include La Jeune Filleaux bas noirs (1893), now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and Femme enfilant ses bas (1893), in the Cleveland Museum of Art, both of which depict a seated female figure in the intimate act of dressing. Rather than functioning as a detailed study for one definitively identified painting, the drawing demonstrates Bonnard’s repeated exploration of the same gesture, experimenting with the figure’s posture, the arrangement of the limbs and the contrast between the dark stockings and the surrounding forms. Rapid passages of India ink capture the figure in an unguarded, everyday gesture, while the strongly defined black stockings create a striking graphic contrast with the loosely articulated body. Its small scale and immediacy reveal Bonnard’s process of developing a familiar motif across drawing and painting, reflecting his emerging interest in domestic intimacy, movement and the female figure.
Executed in 1893, Study for “Femme enfilant ses bas” belongs to a series of drawings and paintings in which Bonnard explored the motif of a young woman putting on her black stockings. The present drawing can be understood as a preparatory study within this broader investigation of the subject, which Bonnard developed through several compositions and techniques between 1893 and 1900. Related works include La Jeune Filleaux bas noirs (1893), now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and Femme enfilant ses bas (1893), in the Cleveland Museum of Art, both of which depict a seated female figure in the intimate act of dressing. Rather than functioning as a detailed study for one definitively identified painting, the drawing demonstrates Bonnard’s repeated exploration of the same gesture, experimenting with the figure’s posture, the arrangement of the limbs and the contrast between the dark stockings and the surrounding forms. Rapid passages of India ink capture the figure in an unguarded, everyday gesture, while the strongly defined black stockings create a striking graphic contrast with the loosely articulated body. Its small scale and immediacy reveal Bonnard’s process of developing a familiar motif across drawing and painting, reflecting his emerging interest in domestic intimacy, movement and the female figure.
