Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Country (1913)

Pierre Bonnard’s Quiet Magic

"kunsthistorie "modernekunst #artclub #artcollector #arthistory #kunstklubb #kunstkurs artadvisoryservices artmovie bonnardmuseum bonnardpierreetmarthe cinemateketioslo frenchrivieraart kunstpafilm modernarts museebonnard pierrebonnard pierrebonnardmuseum May 23, 2025

What if one of the most moving love stories in art history wasn’t loud or dramatic — but quietly unfolding in the corner of a sunlit room?

(Spoiler: That story is now coming to the big screen in Oslo, Norway as part of my Art on Screen/Kunst på film program this month: Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe (2023) – a French film capturing the painter’s world and his lifelong companion.)

But before the lights go down and the credits roll, let’s enter the world of Pierre Bonnard through one of his most evocative paintings.

Dining room in the country, 1913, Pierre Bonnard

A window stands open. A cat slips along the edge of the table. A bowl of fruit rests nearby, a vase of flowers catching the light. And then — there she is. Marthe, leaning gently in from the garden, watching us through the window like a silent witness. Her presence is quiet, but undeniable.

This is Dining Room in the Country, capturing a moment in the couple's country home in Northern France in 1913. Bonnard worked entirely from memory.

He didn’t chase the exact shapes of things, but the feelings they left behind. That’s why the room in this painting feels like it’s shifting: the perspective is unstable, the colours pulse, and the space glows with a dreamlike rhythm.

Marthe — his companion for nearly fifty years — is present in more than three hundred of his works. Yet she rarely takes centre stage. She’s part of the wallpaper, the colour, the light. In this painting, she’s not in the room, but on its edge. We don’t know whether she’s entering or simply watching — and that ambiguity is part of its spell.

Coffee, 1915, Pierre Bonnard

After Marthe’s health began to decline, the couple retreated further into privacy. But rather than isolate him artistically, this withdrawal gave Bonnard an even deeper intimacy with his subject. He painted the ordinary, and made it extraordinary. A chair became a composition, a cat – a quiet narrative, a room – a symphony in ochre and green.

Bonnard was part of the Nabis movement — a group of late 19th-century French artists who laid the groundwork for modern abstraction. They didn’t seek to replicate the world as it looked, but as it felt. Bonnard took this principle further than most. He painted moments long after they had passed, not with photographic accuracy, but with poetic clarity.

This is perhaps why his work resonates so deeply. It reminds us that meaning doesn’t need to be monumental, that quiet rooms, familiar rituals, and small details can carry entire inner worlds.

And now, this world is coming to life in cinema.

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe will be screened at Cinemateket in Oslo, Norway this month, as part of our Art on Screen (Kunst på film) program.

Art on Screen is a collaboration between The Art Trotter and Cinemateket, part of the Norwegian Film Institute, dedicated to bringing great and meaningful art stories to the big screen — with a new movie every month!

If you want to discover Bonnard's art further, I would also like to recommend Pierre Bonnard museum in Le Cannet, on French Riviera.

Don't miss my free French Riviera Art Guide with my personally curated art recommendatins for the season!

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Pierre Bonnard’s Quiet Magic

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