From poodles and spaniels to English setters, basset hounds, and even dachshunds, the list of dogs that inhabit and enliven Pierre Bonnard’s work seems endless. They were his life companions to the very last and remained at the heart of his painting. Never was domestic menagerie so closely bound to poetic and formal inventiveness.

Pierre Bonnard and his dogs offers a new perspective on the painter's work, often associated with cats, through the dominant canine presence within it. Present in his photographs, drawings, and paintings, dogs connect private life and artistic creation in a thousand ways. Drawing on various sources, Stéphane Guégan shows how these indispensable companions and confidants contributed to shaping Bonnard's plastic and poetic vision: they disrupt the scale of his compositions, disturb perspective, and bring movement, tenderness, and moral reflection.

The book traces this rich relationship from the joyful decorative scenes of his early days to his later works, marked by Marthe's progressive isolation, often depicted with her basset hounds.

The fourth title in the Amigos Forever series, it sheds new light on one of the most sensitive and mysterious painters of the 20th century, revealing how, through his dogs, Bonnard reflected on his creation, painting and illustrated books, as well as on the unity of life.