Pierre Bonnard citáty

„Přátelství je schopen ten, komu lidé neznechutili člověka. Kdo věří a ví, že se v davu vyskytují velkorysí lidé, svrchovaní duchové a dobrá srdce. Ten, kdo se neunaví jejich hledáním a miluje je ještě dříve, nežli je našel.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Milovat znamená dávat si schůzku se štěstím v paláci náhody.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Právě chyby dávají někdy obrazu život.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Člověk se spokojí a utěší mnoha přáteli, nenašel-li toho jediného.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Nic není cenějšího než čas, protože je cenou věčnosti.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Umělecké dílo - zastavený čas.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Cílem není malovat život, ale dát život malbě.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Přátelství spočívá ve výběru člověka, kterého jsme si zvolili pro jeho povahu a dali mu jednou provždy přednost.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Umění nikdy nebude schopno existovat bez přírody.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Imagination is merely the exploitation of our memory.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„Painting has to get back to its original goal, examining the inner lives of human beings.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„It would bother me if my canvases were stretched onto a frame. I never know in advance what dimensions I am going to choose.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

Dita Amory, in Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors; Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009 - ISBN 978-0-300-14889-3, p. 4
Bonnard started to paint usually on an unstretched canvas

„My first pictures were done by instinct, the others with more method perhaps. Instinct which nourishes method can often be superior to a method which nourishes instinct.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

quoted by his brother-in-law Claude Terrasse, in 'Introduction' of Pierre Bonnard, John Rewald; MoMA - distribution Simon & Schuster, New York, 1918

„What I am after is the first impression - I want to show all one sees on first entering the room - what my eye takes in at first glance.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„It seemed to me that it was possible to translate light, forms, and character using nothing but color, without recourse to values.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„The artist who paints the emotions creates an enclosed world… the picture… which, like a book, has the same interest no matter where it happens to be. Such an artist, we may imagine, spends a great deal of time doing nothing but looking, both around him and inside him.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„One always talks of surrendering to nature. There is also such a thing as surrendering to the picture.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„The principal subject is the surface, which has its color, its laws over and above those of object.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

„I have all my subjects to hand. I go back and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start painting I reflect, I dream.“

—  Pierre Bonnard

quoted in Bonnard; by Sarah Witfield and John Elderfield; Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York, 1998 - ISBN 0-8109-4021-3, p. 9
Bonnard did not paint from life but rather drew his subject and made notes on the colors. He then painted the canvas in his studio from the sketches and his notes