Self-portrait

Bonnard painted himself throughout his career with a consistency and directness that contrasts with the oblique, distance-preserving approach he took to other subjects. His self-portraits form a biographical sequence tracking his aging from the bearded young Nabi of the 1890s to the frail elderly man of the Occupation years. Unlike Rembrandt or Van Gogh, whose self-portraits are explicitly psychological excavations, Bonnard's tend to treat his own face as another formal problem—the application of color analysis to a familiar subject. This detachment has been interpreted as a form of modesty, but it may equally reflect his insistence that the painting's formal qualities are primary regardless of subject.

The self-portrait face is typically rendered in warm tones with carefully observed shadow passages in cool violet or green. The handling is neither more nor less careful than his treatment of other heads—no special softening for his own likeness. The background is usually a warm domestic space that absorbs the portrait into the familiar intimist setting. Brushwork is varied and analytic.