It is with these simple actions that Bonnard reveals his philosophy. In Self Portrait (1938-40) the left spectacle lens has a small, very powerful negative shape of light isolated by the frame of the glasses. Bonnard’s eye literally views light in a ying-yang, color-chiaroscuro confrontation. Next to this is a barely perceptible, yet significant, sharp mark of depiction of the spectacle frame’s edge – it is a pencil mark embodied in the paint.... [http://www.artcritical.com/2009/03/09] ...The most affecting self portraits, of course, are those made in the artist's old age. The face that once held knowledge of life now holds the knowledge of extinction. ...Bonnard's humbling portrait of himself in the bathroom mirror... such pictures mark the conclusion of the project of self-realization, an undertaking that appears to yield at its end an absolute certainty that there is nothing beyond the self and its death.... [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/19/review-laura-cumming-art-b