Study for Profile of a Woman in a Bow Tie 1906

Here's a painting by Pierre Bonnard, a ‘Study for Profile of a Woman in a Bow Tie,’ that he made with oil on canvas. It's like looking into a dream. The colours are muted, like they’ve been sitting in the sun too long, that kind of faded glory of greens and yellows. I’m thinking about how Bonnard might have put this together, maybe in layers, building up the form with little dabs of colour. The surface is alive with this gentle vibration, these loose brushstrokes. I can see that bow tie, but it's also a kind of burst of light, a little puzzle. There's something so casual about the whole thing, like he just caught her in a moment of reverie. I wonder, was he thinking of other painters while he worked on this? Maybe Manet, or even earlier masters, who knew how to capture the fleeting nature of beauty. We all borrow from each other, you know, it's one big conversation across time. Painting keeps evolving.