Bonnard's Animals

Partly owing to the ubiquitous reproduction of glimpses through doorways and bodies in baths, I’ve never really looked at or thought about Bonnard’s work,  so the Tate’s new show proved a visual and intellectual delight, with beguiling pieces on every wall.   

The depth of visual pleasure lies in the double or triple level of colour and form, with details and shapes emerging and submerging as the eye advances and retreats.    It isn’t new, but I was especially struck by the several animals in the scenes portrayed,  starting with the popular dachshund in Coffee (1915)  who dominates the postcards, prints and merchandise, eclipsing the human figures.

The same dog, I presume, anchors the lower edge of the large landscape Summer (1917).   

Cats appears in The Bowl of Milk (more conventionally)  and The Dining Room (1913)  where their small size suggests a pair of kittens eagerly eyeing the plates of food.

I was rather puzzled by the orange beast in Paysage du Cannet (1928) whose figure firmly faces the  shadowy reclining male on the composition's opposite side, but which I take to be a  calf?  I see the picture sold for $5m in 2005.