The Red Garter 1904

Pierre Bonnard conjured this intimate scene with oil on canvas. Looking at it now, I imagine Bonnard, caught between admiration and something like melancholy as he painted the woman's slumped posture and the unmade bed. The ochre, the blues, and the blacks create a muted intensity. The marks are applied in broad strokes, and the colours feel like they are bleeding into one another, particularly in the folds of the clothing. Bonnard was so good at orchestrating the details of everyday life, so attentive to the atmosphere and the fleeting moments. The red garter itself is barely noticeable, yet it anchors the composition, doesn't it? He, like other artists, learns from those who came before him. And we, in turn, can learn from him, and those who come after us will learn from us. It’s a painting that suggests so much more than it reveals, a kind of quiet, unresolved feeling that lingers, inviting endless interpretation.