The painter was not referring to the unanticipated expansion of his works in progress, as he always worked from preparatory drawings, and the compositions remained within the allotted space that he delineated by a charcoal line before he started to paint. He could not extend a composition by much even if he wanted to, as the strip of white canvas beyond the charcoal line was generally so narrow that there was not even enough canvas to stretch the painting without some of the painted surface ending up wrapped around the stretcher, as in The Breakfast Room (1930-31). On the contrary, it seems that for Bonnard it was understood and acceptable, even desirable, that some of the painted surface would be lost in the process of stretching the canvas. In his explanation for the use of unstretched canvas, Bonnard was not alluding to the necessity of modifying the size of his composition as he was painting it. Rather, it was Bonnard's wish to delay the point when the final size of the painting is determined until after it was painted. ©1998 The Museum of Modern Art, New York