Unlike his friend Vuillard, who made a name for himself as a portrait painter, Bonnard did not often paint portraits. As a rule, he portrayed his relatives or friends on them.
Working on the portrait, the artist did not set himself the task of penetrating into the psychology of the person before him, his portrait was rather a colorful memory of intimacy or friendship. Sometimes these portraits are unusual in composition. For example, in the picture “Lodge” Bonnard writes the Bernheim brothers so that the head of one of them is cut off by the edge of the canvas.
For Bonnard, who absorbed the idea of “Our”, decorativeness always stood above the portrait resemblance. The artist was very fond of including in the portrait “talking” details. In the same “Lodge” elegant toilets ladies show their high position in society and material prosperity. In those cases, when Bonnar was not well acquainted with the man, he preferred to write it in a home setting, which prompted the author some habits and character traits of the person portrayed.
When German artist Karl Hermann asked Bonnard to write a portrait of his wife, he replied that he had no opportunity to go to Berlin for this. Quite often in the paintings of Bonnard there is his wife Martha. But these works are not really portraits. Even if only because, for example, in some of Marta’s Bonnara there is no similarity to the real Marta.
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