The Checkered Tablecloth

Painted in 1916 and held at the Art Institute of Chicago, this still life centres on the domestic table with its checked tablecloth — an object Bonnard returned to across several works. The checked pattern provides the same compositional anchor that striped wallpaper or a patterned blouse provides in his figure works: a geometric organising structure against which the organic forms of fruit, crockery, and vessels are arranged. The Art Institute of Chicago's holdings of Post-Impressionist work include significant Bonnards; the tablecloth subject locates this work in dialogue with the parallel Cézanne still life tradition that Bonnard both acknowledged and transformed.

The check pattern of the tablecloth creates a geometric grid across the lower composition. Fruit and objects are placed upon this pattern in varied arrangements. The palette is warm and domestic, with the tablecloth's colours providing a structural framework for the more freely rendered still life objects above.