Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947, French) was a painter and illustrator who joined Les Nabis. Bonnard never painted on location. Instead, he preferred to sketch or work from memory back in his studio. His style is defined as late or post Impressionism and displays a marked influence from Japanese prints. Known for his skillful use of color and composition, he used metaphor and irony in many of his works. Color was so important to Bonnard that he was known to touch up paintings that he had painted years prior in order to get them just right. Cats, of course, played symbolic roles as erotic, feminine and domestic mirrors and are included in many of his paintings. His wife Marthe de Meligny appears in many of his works as well.
Initially, Bonnard was a lawyer and practiced law briefly until he started attending art classes at Ecole des Beaux-Arts and found his passion for art. After transferring to Académie Julian in 1889, he became friends with Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard. And Félix Vallotton.
Bonnard was an independent person which is perhaps why he held an attraction to cats. The cat loving Henri Matisse commented, “Yes! I maintain that Bonnard is a great artist for our time and, naturally, for posterity.
Bonnard died at his cottage near Le Cannet in 1947.
Be sure to look closely to find the cats in some of the paintings.

Sketch – Cat and Bird

Sketch – Cat and Dog, 1924

Sketch Woman and Cats

Femme assise au jardin
Woman Sitting in a Garden

Sketch from Histoires naturelles, 1904

Sketch – Le Chat
The Cat

My Companions

Sketch – Cat

Chat Roux dormant
Orange Cat Sleeping

Cats Playing

Black Cat

Black Cat Before a Window

Ambroise Vollard and his Cat
1924

Detail Vollard with his Cat, 1924

In the Garden

La femme au chat
Woman with a Cat
1912

La Sieste au Jardin
A Nap in the Garden
1914

Detail of Cat in La sieste au jardin

Le Chat
1893

Marthe à la chatte
(Marthe Bonnard and the Cat)
1912

Nude in the Bath
1925

The Bouillabaisse
1910

Cats on the Railing
1909

Detail Cats on the Railing
1909

L’heure-des-bêtes
Time for the Animals

La Salle à manger au Cannet
The Kitchen, Cannet
1932

La terrasse de Grasse
1912

Le Bol de lait
The Bowl of Milk
1919

Marthe

Still-life with Cat
c.1924

The Bourgeois Afternoon, or The Terrasse Family
1900

Detail – The Terrasse Family
1900

The Dining Room in the Country
1913

Detail – The Dining Room

The Work Table
1926

Cat and Dog, detail from The Work Table

Child with a Cat
1906

Two Girls and a Cat

Table Setting under the lamp oil painting,
c. 1899

Woman and White Cat

Woman with Black and White Cat

The Cat

Detail, The White Cat
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