THE LIFE ARTISTIC

Young women -- often Marthe -- were his favorite models. He painted them in a hat, in a turban, with a pink collar, with a seagull, blending into a landscape, clustered in an interior, walking, seated, leaning over a basket of fruit.

Bonnard: Shimering Color, pp. 72-73 (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 2000)

It wasn't easy doing all those things at once

Though everyone liked seeing me in my pink collar,

Turban and hat. Where Bonnard found his sea gulls

I have never known. They were strangely tame

But had eyes too considering for birds

And when they screeched they seemed embarassed;

You could almost see them wishing for quotemarks

As if "graw!" and "ankhh ankhh!" were being said

Under constraint. So, on one of my posing days

When I was blending, clustered, walking, seated

While leaning over a basket of fruit and Bonnard

Asked me to balance a wine glass on my nose

And hum the Marseilles, I looked at the seagull

For inspiration. He shook his head slightly

That was enough. "M. Bonnard! It has been a pleasure

To model for a man Henri Matisse will some day

Certify as a great painter but I fear we must part;

What you want is beyond human endurance. Perhaps

You should see if the zoo has a trained seal

Who could use ten francs for two hours posing."