Portrait of Ambroise Vollard with a cat

Bonnard's portrait of Ambroise Vollard with his cat is a rare instance of affectionate humor in his portraiture—Vollard, the legendary dealer who handled Cézanne, Picasso, and many of the major Post-Impressionists, was notorious for his somnolent manner and his habit of keeping cats in his gallery. Picasso also painted Vollard, and the dealer commissioned portraits from multiple artists as both personal commemoration and market demonstration that he was close to the painters he represented. Bonnard's relationship with Vollard preceded his more sustained arrangement with Bernheim-Jeune and gave him early commercial exposure. The cat here is not merely an incidental detail but a key element of Vollard's public persona—his gallery's animal companion was famous enough to be noted in contemporary memoirs.

The portrait is less formally structured than most commissioned likenesses; Vollard is rendered in a relaxed pose with the cat as an active compositional element. Bonnard's brushwork is characteristically varied—the cat's fur is handled with loose, animated strokes, the dealer's jacket with broader passages. The surrounding interior provides a warm chromatic context that softens the formal demands of the portrait commission.