Still Life with Dog

c. 1912

Pierre Bonnard

Artist, French, 1867 - 1947

A small, long brown dog is partly hidden by a bowl of red cherries perched on the right edge of a table in this loosely painted, horizontal scene. In the light-filled interior, the table fills the lower left half of the composition. It is draped with a sand-colored cloth decorated with a diagonal band of rose-pink strokes that ends near the lower right. In the center of the table, a tall glass pitcher half filled with water rests in a shallow burgundy-red bowl. Next to the pitcher, to our right, one bowl piled with cherries sits in front of clusters of green grapes in another bowl. Beyond the table, a wooden piece of furniture with two open shelves fills the upper left of the composition. The dog stands on the right side facing our left in profile. It is chocolate brown with a short tail and stubby little legs, and its face is hidden by the cherries. The walls and floors of the room are painted in swipes of teal, peach, tan, blues, and grays. The artist has signed the upper center right in red, “Bonnard.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 51.44 × 62.23 cm (20 1/4 × 24 1/2 in.)
    framed: 78.11 × 89.22 × 6.35 cm (30 3/4 × 35 1/8 × 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    2014.18.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Acquired 1912 from the artist by (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris); sold to (Jos Hessel, Paris). (Alex Reid & Lefevre, London), c. 1939; sold to (Alfred Daber, Paris), until at least 1942. Private collection, Paris. (Alex Reid & Lefevre, London), c. 1965.[1] Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966;[2] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] Exhibited at Lefevre Gallery in 1939, Galerie Daber in 1942, and Lefevre Gallery again in 1965.
[2] Lent to Pierre Bonnard, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1966, no. 105.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1939

  • Entente cordiale: paintings by contemporary British and French artists, Lefevre Gallery, London, 1939, no. 3.

1965

  • 19th and 20th Century Paintings, The Lefevre Gallery, London, 1965, no. 2, repro.

1966

  • Pierre Bonnard, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1966, no. 105.

2016

  • Entre chiens & chats: Bonnard et l'animalité, Musée Bonnard, Le Cannet, France, 2016, no. 23, repro.

Bibliography

1922

  • Coquiot, Gustave. Bonnard. Paris, 1922: 51-52.

1939

  • Wright, E. N. "the French and English Spirit." The Studio 118, no. 559 (October 1939): 138, repro.

1945

  • Courthion, Pierre. Bonnard, peintre du merveilleux. Lausanne, 1945: repro. 148.

1947

  • Beer, François-Joachim. Pierre Bonnard. Marseille, 1947: pl. 110.

1966

  • Dauberville, Jean, and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. 4 vols. Paris, 1966-1974: 2:278.

1993

  • Pierre Bonnard : das Glück zu malen. Exh. cat. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1993: 84, repro.

Inscriptions

upper center right: Bonnard

Wikidata ID

Q20191702


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