Earthly Paradise

Painted in 1923 and held at the Art Institute of Chicago, this large-scale canvas is one of Bonnard's most ambitious single statements — a vision of a garden populated with figures, animals, and abundant vegetation rendered as an ideal domestic paradise. The 'earthly paradise' title connects Bonnard's domestic garden subjects to a long iconographic tradition of the hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden of abundance and innocence. By 1923 the Vernonnet garden and the anticipated Le Cannet garden had become near-mythological spaces in his work. The Art Institute's holding makes this major work accessible to the North American public.

The large canvas is filled with a dense tapestry of figures, animals, foliage, and flowers rendered in Bonnard's mature chromatic range. Deep greens, warm ochres, brilliant yellows, and the varied hues of flowers create a surface of maximum visual richness. Spatial organisation is loose, emphasising abundance over structure.