La Fillette au chat

La Fillette au chat, at the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse, is one of the cluster of domestic scenes Bonnard produced in 1894 during the height of his Nabis period — a year that also saw Le Chat blanc, L'Enfant au pâté de sable, and several decorative screen panels. The combination of a young girl and a cat brings together two of his most characteristic domestic subjects, both valued for the same quality: the absorbed self-direction that made children and animals attractive to a painter interested in figures unaware of being observed. The medium of cardboard, used here as the support, reflects the Nabis' deliberate rejection of the prestige materials of academic painting in favour of cheaper, more immediate surfaces that suited their decorative and poster-making practice. The Fondation Bemberg, assembled by the collector Georges Bemberg and donated to the city of Toulouse, contains several significant Bonnard works from this period and represents one of the most important concentrations of his early work outside Paris.

Bonnard integrates the child and cat within a patterned environment that subordinates both figures to the overall decorative scheme. His handling in this period is relatively spare — forms defined by outline and flat colour rather than the lush chromatic impasto of his later work — reflecting the graphic lessons of his poster and print design.