Woman with a Dog

I realised I have a thing for French painters!  I love Pierre Bonnard's work, his work often seems like he painted it with he lightest touch possible.  As if his brush literally just brushed the canvas as softly as possible.  I love his wide range of bold colours, soft touch and decorative style. 

This French painter was also very fond of dogs, they were  a primary presence in his daily life and featured in his paintings from early on in his career.  This specific picture was painted in 1891, during a time Pierre Bonnard was part of an adventurous group of artists who called themselves Les Nabis (they were a group of young French artists in Paris from 1888 until 1900, who played a large role in the transition from impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and other early movements of modernism).

Each one in the group had a nickname, and Bonnard's nickname was Japonard - pointing to the influence of Japanese wood block art on his work.  He was captivated by the flat planes of colours and the intimate interiors of this style and he liberally borrowed of these forms and conventions for his own work, as can be seen in this painting.  

This painting of Bonnard shows his sister and cousin both playing with the family dog in a garden.  He compressed the space and simplified the forms, flattening the folds and patterns of the women’s clothing, techniques characteristic of the style discussed above.

This 40 x 50cm version of Pierre Bonnards 1891 painting is a challenging one with 28 colours.  Each box contains a stretched, printed and numbered canvas, paint, brushes and a page detailing the numbers for an extra reference.