"Historically, yes, before modern plumbing and showers (prior to the mid-19th century), it was common practice in France and Europe for people to use a pail of water and a cup to pour water over themselves for rinsing after washing in a tub or basin. This allowed for a final clean rinse without needing to drain and refill the tub."
“a tragically neurasthenic woman: a frightened woman beside herself, and with an obsession about constantly washing and bathing […] excessively demanding and half ‘absent’ as a personality”. Marthe was indeed chronically ill—a skin disease, amongst other things, and perhaps tuberculosis—and the couple led an increasingly reclusive and itinerant life
"How do we see Marthe? Often in the bath. Her cocktail of maladies required numerous hours submerged in water, and Bonnard had plumbing and a tub installed in Le Cannet. But Marthe’s bathing also slotted neatly into the tradition of the baigneur (‘bather’) as a set type. Bonnard owned a baigneuse by Renoir of which he was particularly fond, revelling in its fleshiness and classicism. Yet he has more in common with Degas, whose nude bathers are placed mainly inside, washing, drying, moving through the slow awkwardness of the toilette. Bonnard’s earlier paintings show Marthe contorted and stretched into spry, nimble positions or crouched in a basin."
https://oxonianreview.com/articles/marthe
looks like a brush used for bathing.
https://encycolorpedia.com/art/pierre-bonnard-standing-naked-woman-washes-herself
- dave 2-22-2026 5:43 pm
OK, a bathing brush. Wouldn't one do that in the tub, with water?
- steve 2-22-2026 11:00 pm [add a comment]
"Historically, yes, before modern plumbing and showers (prior to the mid-19th century), it was common practice in France and Europe for people to use a pail of water and a cup to pour water over themselves for rinsing after washing in a tub or basin. This allowed for a final clean rinse without needing to drain and refill the tub."
“a tragically neurasthenic woman: a frightened woman beside herself, and with an obsession about constantly washing and bathing […] excessively demanding and half ‘absent’ as a personality”. Marthe was indeed chronically ill—a skin disease, amongst other things, and perhaps tuberculosis—and the couple led an increasingly reclusive and itinerant life
"How do we see Marthe? Often in the bath. Her cocktail of maladies required numerous hours submerged in water, and Bonnard had plumbing and a tub installed in Le Cannet. But Marthe’s bathing also slotted neatly into the tradition of the baigneur (‘bather’) as a set type. Bonnard owned a baigneuse by Renoir of which he was particularly fond, revelling in its fleshiness and classicism. Yet he has more in common with Degas, whose nude bathers are placed mainly inside, washing, drying, moving through the slow awkwardness of the toilette. Bonnard’s earlier paintings show Marthe contorted and stretched into spry, nimble positions or crouched in a basin."
https://oxonianreview.com/articles/marthe
- dave 2-22-2026 11:24 pm [add a comment]
"Approaching fifty, no longer attractive and plagued by psoriasis, it must have seemed to her that her world was disintegrating around her."
- dave 2-22-2026 11:46 pm [add a comment]
I hadn't read about her skin condition. By some accounts the hydrotherapy for her TB involved cold water baths, can't imagine they helped her depression.
- steve 2-23-2026 3:41 am [add a comment]