Bonnard's Nudes

His wife. Forty years he painted her. Again and again. The nude in the last painting the same young nude as the the first. His wife As he remembered her young. As she was young. His wife in her bath. At her dressing table in front of the mirror. Undressed. His wife with her hands under her breasts looking out on the garden. The sun bestowing warmth and color. Every living thing in bloom there. She young and tremulous and most desirable. When she died, he painted a while longer. A few landscapes. Then died. And was put down next to her. His young wife. Raymond Carver