"Still Life"

This piece, by Mary Gordon, is a reflection, contrasting her love of Bonnard with her mother's decline into dementia.  Gordon's mother no longer remembers her daughter and is often agitated and confused when she comes to visit her in the nursing home.  The paintings of Bonnard act almost as an escape for Gordon, in that their bright colors and effortless beauty seem to imagine another world in which people don't grow old and lose their dignity.  She wonders if Bonnard could take the unbearable tableau she sees every week in the nursing home, of people literally wilting before her eyes, and create a scene of warmth and elegant subtlety.  Gordon plans a party for her mother's ninetieth birthday and brings her flowers and food of colors evoking Bonnard.  To her, the food in his paintings always hinted of a sunny place.  

Pierre Bonnard, Basket of Fruit: Oranges and Persimmons, 1940

While Gordon appreciates the beauty and simplicity of Bonnard's work, she wonders if behind this facade there existed a more complex, wistful man.  She ends her essay with the following question: "Is it possible that, despite his portrayal of the joy and richness of the colors of this world, despite his mastery and his absorption in the process of seeing, despite his recognition and success, his last days were no more enviable than my mother's?" (53).