Momisa 1915

Pierre Bonnard made *Momisa* with oil on canvas. I imagine Bonnard in his studio, the light catching the yellow of the mimosa, a colour that feels almost edible. The paint is worked wet-on-wet in these lush, short strokes, and the mass of bright yellow blooms really sings against the muted greens and browns. There is a kind of alchemy here, where the materiality of paint transforms into the vibrant reality of the natural world. Bonnard was part of a group called Les Nabis, and they were all about synthesizing their observations of nature into a personal, decorative style. This feels like a direct conversation with the Impressionists but with an added layer of intimacy and interiority that's all his own. You see that same exchange of ideas with someone like Vuillard or Matisse, a kind of ongoing conversation that stretches across studios and across time.