Woman with Black Stockings 1900

Pierre Bonnard made this painting, Woman with Black Stockings, with oil on canvas. Bonnard worked in a painterly style. The intimate scene is conjured from everyday life using visible brushstrokes that add to the surface texture, and layers of color that contribute to the work's mood. The materiality of paint is important to how we perceive the woman's form and the setting she occupies, suggesting the immediacy of lived experience and an engagement with the domestic sphere. Bonnard’s casual rendering of a woman dressing underscores the complexities of labor, desire, and the female form, questioning the boundaries of fine art by blurring distinctions between private moments and public representation. The fashion industry produces the stockings she is wearing, which became available to all women due to developments in manufacturing and distribution in the late 19th and early 20th century. Considering the materials, processes, and context in which Woman with Black Stockings was created, we gain a deeper understanding of the art's layers of meaning, while also questioning the traditional distinction between high art and craft.