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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