Bunny’s paintings consisted mainly of landscapes and beautiful women of high class. Portraits still being a fairly common form of art at the time, Bunny chose to also incorporate somewhat elaborate backgrounds as well as foregrounds. Bunny’s artwork also contained an abundance of soft, pastel colours, playing with the soft and smooth qualities that muted colours can bring. He painted scenes of beautiful sea and lake landscapes, focusing on a photographic realism unlike the romantic painters. Endormies, one of Bunny’s oil paintings, depicts two women sleeping peacefully in the foreground. The background features swans, and a clear lake. This picture contains impressive use of visual imagery as will be explained in the next paragraph.
The use of colour, surface and composition all play an important part in conveying the restful and peaceful qualities of this painting. The painting consists almost solely of pale, neutral colours, which reflects the soothing quality of the two women sleeping. The use of the colour white also represents purity and goodness, representing the two upper-class women. Secondly, surface is also used to demonstrate the gentle vibe of the painting, with intricate detail used in detailing the luscious, soft fabric of the high class women. Every surface is portrayed as gentle, the tranquil lake, soft dresses and flowing fabric blankets – which all lend to the overarching theme of Endormies, meaning Sleeping in French. Lastly, the very neoclassical composition (one of the well-known compositions of neoclassic art was diagonal focus) helps represent the visual imagery in this picture. The eye is lead through two lines – the first made by the main subject (the sleeping woman in the