Two Poodles
Pierre Bonnard, 1891
Image not available: work still under copyright
Two Poodles is an oil on canvas that Pierre Bonnard painted in 1891, at a time when he was exploring a decorative language shaped by Japanese art. The scene shows two brown poodles at play, one leaping up and the other down, both barking against a green floor, while a couple of flowers appear on the right. The poodles are said to have possibly been modelled on Bonnard's own dog, Ravageau. The composition is simple yet lively, and the use of flat blocks of colour reflects the artist's interest in Japanese woodblock prints. The picture also has an unusual origin: Bonnard had recently entered a competition to design dining room furniture that never came to anything, and he reused an existing cabinet door design for this painting. Dark dogs recur as an important subject in his work. The painting now belongs to the Southampton City Art Gallery, which received it in 1963 through the bequest of collector Arthur Tilden Jeffress.
- Painter
- Pierre Bonnard
- Date
- 1891
- Dimensions
- 36 × 40 cm
- Museum
- Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton