The Breakfast Table, painted in 1936, tilts in such a way that we might initially see the red patterned area as the floor of the room, due to the breadth of space it seems to cover, almost reaching the far walls of the interior. Only the contents--the teapot, plate, jar and other objects--and the ocher face, seen in profile to the right allow us to see that it is, in fact, a table. The tiny figure at the rear that looks out from the scene also adds to the odd spatial play within the room. This figure is a mirror reflection. Even the walls seem to obey the push-pull patterning of the colors by shifting in unnatural juxtapositions of planes. The open edge of the door on the left leads to a narrow wall, then shifts into the wall behind the radiator, then to the windows, again to another wall, and back to the figures. Bonnard makes us look upon the scene with a mobile concentration that periodically fixates on the profile face which stares at the open vessel, transfixed. ©1998 The Museum of Modern Art, New York