The Open Window (Bonnard)

The Open Window is a work by the French artist Pierre Bonnard, painted in 1921. Depicting a scene in a room, the painting draws the viewer's focus to the natural landscape outside of the window, away from the figures in the bottom right. The work is currently housed in The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

The Open Window
Artist	Pierre Bonnard
Year	1921
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	118.11 cm × 95.885 cm (46.50 in × 37.750 in)

Subject and composition

The contrast between the exterior blues and greens and the interior red oranges keeps the viewer's focus away from the black cat and woman at the lower right corner of the canvas. Dogs and cats are a signature that are found in all of his works.[1] It takes a while for the viewer to find the woman's head in chair. Her hair is palish blue like the canvas of the chair and her face the same red as the wall behind. This suggested human presence, like some figure in a dream, became a feature of these inside-outside views that Bonnard painted in the 1930s.[2] The human figure is believed to be Bonnard's wife Marthe de Meligny. Their relationship was a strained one, made worse by Bonnard's infidelity. The blonde woman in The Open Window may also be Renee Monchaty, with whom he fell in love around 1917 and who killed herself in 1923, after Bonnard left her to be with his spouse.[1] Many accounts describe Monchaty as being Bonnard's ideal statuesque model for his paintings.[3]

Bonnard's work was painted from memory rather than from life, which accounts for the semi-realistic view of his paintings. Bonnard's studies of the domestic interior and its psychological charge, a reflection upon his private life, is evident in his work. In his interiors, a sense of longing is concentrated in open windows to the outside world. In The Open Window, color and light transfigure a room in the artist’s house in Normandy. The focal point of the painting is the void in the middle, the sky, the foliage, and the outside shadow enclosed by the window [1] despite the painting giving more space to the walls.[2]

Collection

The painting as of 2018 remains under the curation of the Phillips Collection.[1]

References

1. "History And Context". The Open Window by Pierre Bonnard. Phillips Collection. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
2. Melikan, Souren. "The Key to Pierre Bonnard, a Quiet Man Par Excellence". The New York Times. New York Times Company. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
3. Jiminez, Jill Berk (2013). Dictionary of Artists' Models. Routledge. p. 378. ISBN 9781135959210.