Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was a relative latecomer to interiors, and throughout his career he was a prolific painter of the outdoors. However, when he started living with Marthe, he began to paint her almost obsessively, and took thousands of photographs of her. In these two articles I have selected some of those works that best fit the new genre of interiors, starting here with various rooms, and concluding tomorrow in Marthe’s bathroom.

In 1898, Bonnard painted the first of his controversial works revealing his private life with Marthe, in Man and Woman in an Interior, a motif known better from his later version of 1900. He stands naked, looking away, as Marthe is getting dressed on the bed. Its post-coital implications are clear. The image has also been cropped unusually, as if it was a ‘candid’ photo, enhancing its voyeuristic appearance.

In Bonnard’s Young Woman by the Lamp (1900), the artist explores a different light, cast by table lamps. In the foreground a woman is busy sewing under the lamp’s glow. In the background, at the left, a couple sit by another table lamp with a green shade.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Bonnard used mirrors and reflections in several paintings, including this Interior from about 1905. It’s an unusual composition, with just a little of the woman’s back visible in the mirror; Bonnard instead shows the reflection of a chair placed in front of the mirror, and what appears to be the artist sat at a table.

His purpose in placing the chair in front of the mirror was, I think, to demonstrate that the artist’s eye is in line with the chair and with his own reflection, confirming that it is him who is sat at the table, although he doesn’t have an easel, neither is any canvas or palette visible.

The Milliner, painted in 1907, features Anita Champagne’s distinctive chignon. The hat she has brought is laid carefully on a chair beside her.

Bonnard’s sister and her family were one of his favourite motifs. In The Claude Terrasse Family from 1908-10, the artist again looks at the play of lamps and their light, although he curiously manages to avoid showing any face. Claude Terrasse the musician and composer is naturally at his piano, his face obscured by a lamp standing on its corner. Bonnard’s sister and her daughter sit sewing at the table, lit by a larger lamp and facing away.

Bonnard’s private life was ever turbulent. In Before Dinner (1924), there are two places laid at the table, and two women behind. One at the left has her back towards the other, who stands by the table as if waiting for something to happen. A dog is just emerging from behind the chair at the left, and looks up the standing woman.

The Table (1925) presumably shows Marthe eating at a table replete with fruit and other food.

At first sight, White Interior from 1932 looks deserted. Outside it is late dusk, and the cool breeze has started to blow in from the balcony, through the open French windows. The table is busy, and on the far side of it is Marthe, almost blending in with the carpet. Interior white surfaces, including the door and a radiator, are brilliant in the harsh electric light.

Villa Bosquet, Le Cannet, Morning from about 1945 is Bonnard’s strongest statement of his loneliness at home after Marthe’s death. The empty chair at the table and its even areas of paint are a marked contrast to his earlier domestic views.

Interior: Dining Room is claimed to date between 1942-46. It’s dark outside. On the table inside Le Bosquet, there are bowls of fruit laid out, and at the right a blonde woman sits to eat.