Pierre Bonnard Quotes

France, Artist
October 3, 1867 – January, 23, 1947.

Pierre Bonnard (3 October 1867 — 23 January 1947) was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis. Bonnard preferred to work from memory, using drawings as a reference, and his paintings are often characterized by a dreamlike quality. The intimate domestic scenes, for which he is perhaps best known, often include his wife Marthe de Meligny.

Also known as Painter, Printmaker

Art will never be able to exist without nature.

Pierre Bonnard
- Art
- Nature
You reason color more than you reason drawing... Color has a logic as severe as form.

Pierre Bonnard
- Color
- Drawing
- Logic

My first pictures were done by instinct, the others with more method perhaps. Instinct which nourishes method can often be superior to a method which nourishes instinct.

Pierre Bonnard
- Done
I should like to present myself to the young painters of the year 2000 with the wings of a butterfly.

Pierre Bonnard
- Present
- Butterfly
I work in the mornings and in the afternoons I go to the Latin Quarter. It is a long way from the Batignolles district to the Pantheon: Fortunately there is the Metro. It amuses me to see the people squashed together, and among them are some pretty faces which I draw in the evenings, from memory, in my sketchbook.

Pierre Bonnard
- People
- Work
- Long
One always talks of surrendering to nature. There is also such a thing as surrendering to the picture.

Pierre Bonnard
- Nature
- Picture
The precision of naming takes away from the uniqueness of seeing.

Pierre Bonnard
The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible.

Pierre Bonnard

Draw your pleasure, paint your pleasure, and express your pleasure strongly.

Pierre Bonnard
I'm trying to do what I have never done - give the impression one has on entering a room: one sees everything and at the same time nothing.

Pierre Bonnard
- Time
- Trying
- Done
A painting that is well composed is half finished.

Pierre Bonnard
- Painting
You cannot possibly invent painting all by yourself.

Pierre Bonnard
- Painting
Color does not add a pleasant quality to design - it reinforces it.

Pierre Bonnard
- Quality
- Design
- Color
When you forget everything, there only remains yourself - and that is not enough.

Pierre Bonnard

It would bother me if my canvases were stretched onto a frame. I never know in advance what dimensions I am going to choose.

Pierre Bonnard
I have all my subjects to hand. I go back and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start painting I reflect, I dream.

Pierre Bonnard
- Home
- Dream
- Hand
Work on the accent, it will enliven the whole.

Pierre Bonnard
- Work
It is still color, it is not yet light.

Pierre Bonnard
- Light
- Color