Dans Le Cabinet de Toilette, 1907

I’m looking at one of Bonnard’s standing nudes
thinking again how much I like his paintings
when my companion for the exhibition returns to my side,

having finished already, not feeling compelled
to read every single caption, and asks me
Why is she wearing a pair of high heeled shoes

in the bathroom? It’s true, she’s wearing court shoes
which I hadn’t noticed. She’s naked, drying herself
with a luminous towel, wearing sunset-coloured shoes

and we find another Bonnard nude on another wall
where she’s wearing what could be black slippers
but why would they be pointed? This caption says

it’s his wife, and I remember reading in a catalogue
about Bonnard’s wife being obsessed with cleanliness,
how she was always washing herself, so Bonnard

was always painting her naked in the bathroom
but she must have had issues about the soles of her feet
touching floor tiles. My date has no such problem.

He tells me he loves going barefoot and he couldn’t own
these paintings, those shoes are making him uncomfortable,
and I like Bonnard even more for letting his wife

keep her shoes on and for painting them there.