The Table by Pierre Bonnard (1925)

Tate Catalog Entry: Visit https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonnard-the-table-n04134

N04134 La Table (The Table) 1925

Inscribed 'Bonnard' b.r. Oil on canvas, 40 1/2 x 29 1/4 (103 x 74) Presented by the Trustees of the Courtauld Fund 1926 Prov: With Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (purchased from the artist); through Independent Gallery, London; the Trustees of the Courtauld Fund Exh: RSA, Edinburgh, April-August 1932 (211); RSA, Edinburgh, April-August 1946 (104); Samuel Courtauld Memorial Exhibition, Tate Gallery, May-September 1948 (1); Bonnard and his Environment, Museum of Modern Art, New York, October-November 1964 (34, repr.); Art Institute of Chicago, January-February 1965 (34, repr.); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March-May 1965 (34, repr.); Pierre Bonnard, RA, London, January-March 1966 (179) Lit: Douglas Cooper, The Courtauld Collection (London 1954), No.1, p.83, repr. pl.64; Jean and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard (Paris 1973), No.1310, Vol.3, p.255, repr. p.254 and facing colour plate Repr: Burlington Magazine, XLVIII, 1926, p.64

The woman is probably Marthe Bonnard, the artist's wife. She is looking towards a dog whose muzzle is faintly visible on the left, and seems to be preparing its food in a bowl.

A similar drawing in coloured chalks, said to have been made in 1929, is reproduced in T. Natanson, Le Bonnard que je propose (Geneva 1951), pl.77.

Published in: Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.66-7, reproduced p.66