Editing Pierre Bonnard (section)

==Method==
[[File:The dining room in the country by Pierre Bonnard (1913).jpg|thumb|''Dining Room in the Country'' (1913), oil on canvas, [[Minneapolis Institute of Arts]]]]
Bonnard is known for his intense use of color, especially via areas built with small brush marks and close values. His often complex compositions—typically of sunlit interiors and gardens populated with friends and family members—are both narrative and autobiographical.  Bonnard's fondness for depicting intimate scenes of everyday life, has led to him being called an "[[Intimism (art movement)|Intimist]]"; his wife Marthe was an ever-present subject over the course of several decades.<ref name=agd/> She is seen seated at the kitchen table, with the remnants of a meal; or nude, as in a series of paintings where she reclines in the bathtub. He also painted several [[self-portrait]]s, [[landscape art|landscapes]], street scenes, and many [[still life]]s, which usually depicted flowers and fruit.

Bonnard did not paint from life but rather drew his subject—sometimes photographing it as well—and made notes on the colors. He then painted the canvas in his studio from his notes.<ref>Cowling and Mundy, 1990, p. 38.</ref> "I have all my subjects to hand," he said, "I go back and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start painting I reflect, I dream."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Yq0IRs_ZZwC&q=bonnard%20before%20I%20start%20painting%20I%20reflect,%20I%20dream&pg=PA28|title=The Smith College Museum of Art: European and American Painting and Sculpture, 1760-1960|last1=Art|first1=Smith College Museum of|last2=Davis|first2=John|last3=Leshko|first3=Jaroslaw|date=2000|publisher=Hudson Hills|isbn=9781555951948|pages=28|language=en}}</ref>

He worked on numerous canvases simultaneously, which he tacked onto the walls of his small studio. In this way, he could more freely determine the shape of a painting; "It would bother me if my canvases were stretched onto a frame. I never know in advance what dimensions I am going to choose."<ref name="Amory, 4"/>