Bonnard painted many pictures of women bathing. Although she looks young, it is most likely this is of his wife Marthe, who was in her mid-fifties in 1925. It was purchased from the artist by the dealer Bernheim-Jeune in Paris on 7 December 1925 and subsequently bought by Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill (1898-1956) probably from his friend Percy Moore Turner (1877-1950) of the Independent Gallery, London. He gifted it to the Contemporary Art Society in 1931 - along with The Window (La Fenêtre), also by Bonnard - who presented it to the Tate in the same year. Spencer-Churchill was a Committee Member (1927-49) of the Contemporary Art Society (1927-49) and its Hon. Secretary (1926-38) donating 21 pictures, and buying 14 artworks, as a CAS elected buyer, to donate to UK museums.