Interior 1913

Pierre Bonnard painted this small painting, Interior, on canvas with oils. Look at the honeyed light, how it drapes everywhere, pooling in the corners of the room, catching on the mirror. I can imagine Bonnard, brush in hand, carefully layering color upon color to capture the warmth and intimacy of this domestic scene. The brushstrokes are loose and gestural, lending the painting a dreamlike quality, like a memory half-forgotten. There's a mirror on the back wall reflecting a figure, perhaps a woman in red clothing, and a chair covered with a patterned cloth, all rendered with a playful, slightly skewed perspective. Bonnard's paintings remind me of Vuillard, and the way he played with flattening space. Think about Bonnard, about the way he looked at light and pattern, how he tried to transcribe that onto canvas. It’s like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment, a feeling, rather than a literal depiction. It feels like such an invitation, to enter his world, his life.