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As a member of Nabis, a group of French artists, Rippl painted the portraits of several members (Vuillard", 1897, and "Mailloil", 1899), that of Thadée Natanson, editor-in-chief of symbolist Revue Blanche. Bonnard's portrait is a part of the series (the Hungarian National Gallery has another portrait by Rippl supposed to portray Bonnard). Rippl thought that "Bonnard was a Montmartre figure in form, way of thinking and art".
The portrait is an intimate picture of the model, he is lost in his thoughts, forms are soft and blurred. Sharp contours of previous portraits are no longer present in the picture from 1897 and the plain portrayal is lost, too. "Portrait of Pierre Bonnard, French Painter" is the result of Rippl-Rónai's coal reduction period, it consists of grey, black and brown. The picture arises from the harmony of light and dark patches. The face partly in shadow is covered with dark hair, beard and moustache. The black silhouette of the model seperates him from the greyish background. Loose brush strokes produced a thin layer of transparent paint. The interesting character of the composition comes from its asymmetric diagonal arrangement. Unlike traditional portraits, the hand of the model is not seen in the picture.
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