Mimosa

Bonnard is known for his intense use of color, developed by areas built with small brush marks and close color values. His often complex compositions, typically of sunlit interiors of rooms and gardens populated with friends and family members, are both narrative and autobiographical. His wife, Marthe, was an ever-present subject over the course of several decades. She is seen seated at the kitchen table, with the remnants of a meal; or nude, as in a series of paintings where she reclines in the bathtub. He also painted several self-portraits, landscapes, street scenes, and many still lifes, which usually depicted flowers and fruit. Bonnard did not paint from life but rather drew his subject, sometimes photographing it as well, and made notes on the subject’s colors. He then painted the canvas in his studio from his collected information..