The Cone Sisters: Pierre Bonnard

You cannot (or should not) go to the Baltimore Museum of Art and not visit the amazing collection of works amassed by the Cone Sisters. The pair were great fans of both Matisse and Picasso and purchased paintings like a pair of 20 century hoarders all to the great benefit of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Two here by Pierre Bonnard.

Bonnard is considered a post-impressionist, and for a time was a seminal member of "Les Nabis". A group that included one of my favorite artists (Edouard Villard). The thing that characterizes Bonnard's work in my mind are his use of somewhat garish colors and a general flattening of the images by a selective use of contrasting colors. He often includes women in his compositions, but most significantly melds their forms into the images so as to de-emphasize their presence in an almost ghostly way. At the same time, whenever, and there often is, a dog in the painting, you can see it pretty readily! There has got a thesis paper on this written somewhere.

"Luncheon Table"

by Pierre Bonnard

1867-1947, FRENCH

"Woman with a Bowl of Fruit"

by Pierre Bonnard

1867-1947, FRENCH