The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
Pierre Bonnard: Artist par excellence of the Dachshund?
Since first finding the very fine and colourful painting ‘Le Café’ by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) in the online Tate collection, I have developed an obsession with the artist. Yes - an obsession! My first real obsession. More compelling than all my squeaky toys and rawhide chews put together - and that’s a lot of toys, let me tell you.
My dreams of Bonnard’s dachshund troubled my doggy days and broke into my houndish slumbers - did this magnificent painter have other paintings of dachshunds in his collection? For days I resisted the urge, but eventually succumbed to the itch to dig up more of Bonnard’s work.
To my utmost delight, there are many other paintings in his oeuvre that represent dachshunds! SuperWoof! Perhaps Bonnard is the ultimate artiste of the badger hound. Although there are not as many paintings that feature dachshunds as paintings that feature his beloved wife Marthe (whose figure graces almost 300 of his works), there are plenty of colourfully vibrant, life-affirming canvases that feature and celebrate the companionship between humans and the noble dachshund.
Another claim to fame would be that Bonnard, together with his friend Edouard Vuillard and the other members of the group known as the Nabis (Hebrew for prophets), helped establish a new, modern style that was important for the emergence of Art Nouveau in the late 1890s. For both these services to the art world, I for one, am eternally woof-ful!
Moreover, the dachshund connection is more than mere whimsy. His works that feature dogs generally and dachshunds in particular span the entirely of his career, from the early years to the 1940s. For example, one of his paintings was inspired by the encounter of two small dogs turning around each other (’Street in Eragny-sur-Oise,’1893).
His joy and celebration of ordinary life, coffee, dogs, women, bathing, gardens, etc., was undiminished, despite the fact that he lived through both World War I and World War II. Many of the early works had a naïve and simple quality, such as the painting featured below – ‘The Red Checkered Tablecloth’ or ‘The Dog’s Lunch’ (1910). Five years later he painted ‘Le Café’ (1915), which we featured earlier in these Archie pages, and is currently held by the Tate.
In the interwar years of the 1930s Bonnard continued to feature dachshunds – now with nude women as opposed to women in coffee houses. The subject of the woman at her toilette has been a preoccupation of artists from time immemorial.
In ‘The Bathroom’ (1932) we again see Marthe, this time stooped over in the bathroom in the South of France. Again, patiently, serenely, lies her faithful pooch. One can almost hear the quiet of intimacy between them.
Towards the end of his career dogs continued to play a significant role. Take, for example, his ‘Nude in the Bath and Small Dog’ (1941-46). According to the Smithsonian magazine (July 1998) this painting portrays an ‘ethereal Marthe .. almost consumed by the jewel-like light.’ At the foot of the bath is her ever-faithful hound, rolled in the distinctive donut-dog formation favoured by us badger-hounds.
Art critics at the Museum of Modern Art go so far as to claim that the ‘’..explosion of colours in ‘Nude in the Bath and Small Dog’ (1941-46) almost bars us from making any sense of the painting were it not for a few key recognizable objects - notably the dog and the bathtub, within which the details of the immersed figure of Marthe slowly appears.'’ Sadly Marthe died in 1942 at the age of 72 - several years before Bonnard finished the painting.
“There is a formula, which fits painting perfectly: [it takes] many little lies to create a great truth.” – Pierre Bonnard on the difference between realism and painterly portraiture.
I admit – sometimes my small doggy mind spins in ecstasy to such an extent that I am no longer certain of any objectivity in my estimation of Bonnard’s oeuvre. But Bonnard himself compared his life to the lives of animals (many of his works also feature cats). Of his working patterns Bonnard wrote that he enjoyed ’states of daydreaming like a cat. Sleep between states of exaltation like the dog.’ SuperWoof! No doubt my beloved Specs will also be pleased.
And it comes as an immense relief to learn that when the great art collector Duncan Phillips first saw a work by Bonnard in 1925 he knew instantly that he had to have it. Even more reassuringly, the work was Bonnard’s ‘Woman with Dog’, which was to become the first of many works Phillips acquired for The Phillips Collection; he also acquired ‘The Dog’s Lunch’ (1910), and the Phillips Collection holds a significant number of Bonnard’s works – many of which feature the noble badger hound.
Duncan Phillips saw Bonnard as the great 20th century inventor of colour and heir to Renoir, and in 1930 Phillips gave Bonnard his very first one-man show in the United States. Recent curator of the Phillips collection, Stamberg has written that “With his smudges, and scenes, and intimate domestic moments, Pierre Bonnard worked against the art of his day. Picasso was using geometry, cubes, Africa, neutral colours. Matisse was flattening colour out, making it bold and primary. Bonnard was more interested not just in how we see colour, but how we experience it — how it makes us feel.”
It is my greatest hope that my readers find as much enjoyment in the works as I do. As for myself, Bonnard’s works make me – Roleta Archibald Esquire – feel absolute joy.
Awoof! Archie.
P.S. If you would like to find out even more about Bonnard’s life and works you might like to investigate Sarah Whitfield’s Bonnard (1998)
Posted 24 Dec 05
8 Responses to “Pierre Bonnard: Artist par excellence of the Dachshund?”
Leave a Reply
©2008 Roleta Archibald, Awoof!™
In my further research I have dug up the following piece of Bonnard trivia: one of his dogs was called Ubu - after Ubu Roi. Ubu Roi was a satirical farce that Bonnard and Alred Jarry collaborated on for over five years. Sadly Jarry (1873-1907) died young due to alcoholism. Bonnard would many years later name one of his dogs ‘Ubu’. Awoof! Archie
Archie @ 8:43 pm, 15 January 2006
Very needed information found here, thank you for your work
radbyrne @ 9:25 am, 12 June 2006
looking for information and found it at this great site.
braden @ 8:01 am, 08 August 2006
Bonnard and his wife owned a series of Dachshunds. There’s another wonderful Bonnard painting that includes a Dachshund at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It’s entitled “Dressing Table and Mirror.” If you go to www.mfah.org and do a search under Bonnard, a link to the painting appears first: take a look.
Gene @ 10:39 pm, 17 April 2007
[…] Pierre Bonnard is without doubt one of the greatest painters of the noble dachshund the world has ever seen (and there have been many dachshund-inspired artists, including Picasso, Andy Warhol and others). The feet even travelled to Paris to see a Bonnard exhibition. Highly-rated painter of donught-dogs. Awoof! Archie […]
Archie - Dog tales - Bonnard @ 11:07 pm, 06 May 2007
Excellent post of the glories of Bonnard and his brilliant Dacshund paintings. You might be interested in my new film “Dogs in Art” that features the little brown Doxie from Bonnard’s painting “Nude in the Bath and Small Dog.” You can view it here…
http://dreamdogsart.typepad.com/art/
There are several other Dachshunds in the film too. I am biased since I own a Longhaired one. Enjoy!
Moira @ 4:51 pm, 01 July 2008
ooops! here is the link to “Dogs in Art”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpIp0Ebao8k
Moira @ 4:51 pm, 01 July 2008
With Archie’s help I rounded some spectacular Bonnard Dachshund paintings and sketches.
http://dreamdogsart.typepad.com/art/2008/07/pierre-bonnards-dachshunds.html
Moira @ 12:18 am, 15 July 2008