Unstretched/Stretched: Bonnard's work process reconsidered Pierre Bonnard's unusual working method has attracted surprisingly little attention. Instead of following the conventional practice of painting on stretched canvases resting at a convenient height and tilting at a comfortable angle on an easel, Bonnard generally chose to paint on unstretched pieces of canvas that were thumb-tacked to the walls of his studios or hotel rooms. Several pieces of roughly cut canvas were juxtaposed on the wall, often abutting, in rows, some very low and others quite high. Bonnard went from one to the other as he applied paint on his various compositions, having several works in progress at any one time. Sometimes he painted various compositions directly on a single large canvas that he cut later on. Photographs of the painter at work, bending down to almost floor level or stretching his arm up as far as he could reach, make one painfully aware of how exacting this procedure must have been. Written by Christel Hollevoet, Research Assistant, who worked on the exhibition Bonnard with John Elderfield, Chief Curator at Large and Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs. This text was first published in the May issue of MoMA, the magazine of The Museum of Modern Art. ©1998 The Museum of Modern Art, New York