Flowers on a Mantlepiece 1913

Editor: We're looking at Pierre Bonnard's "Flowers on a Mantlepiece," painted in 1913 using oil. It feels very warm and domestic to me, but the composition seems a little unbalanced. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Structurally, the painting employs a sophisticated tension between flatness and depth. Consider the almost overwhelming field of burnt orange that occupies the background; it presses forward, challenging any illusion of recession created by the table and objects arranged on it. Note how the ceramic vessels punctuates the rhythm along the mantle. Editor: So the flatness isn't a flaw, but a deliberate choice? Curator: Precisely. The arrangement of forms contributes to what we can term its pictorial logic. Look at the visual weight of the flower arrangement in relation to the smaller objects on the shelf. What does their relationship suggest? Editor: That the bulk of the arrangement on top overpowers the ceramic pieces flanking the shelf... maybe creating an uneven weight that the painter seeks to counteract through this very bright single tone filling up most of the canvas's area. It makes sense given its intimate aesthetic, that of the artist's everyday world. Curator: The color palette and surface treatment further underscore Bonnard's aesthetic project. See the dabs of paint—fleeting touches creating light across the stems and petals. Bonnard is making a statement. The world around him provides all the substance he needs. Editor: It's amazing how much can be understood simply by looking at the arrangement of elements and use of color. Curator: Yes. Paying close attention to these internal relationships unveils the artist’s structural intent. These qualities construct an important reading of "Flowers on a Mantlepiece," a work that manages to speak with a seemingly simple visual expression.