Pierre Bonnard

Fontenay-aux-Roses, 13 October 1867 – 23 January 1947, Le Cannet

Le Nabi tres japonard

La Petite qui tousse, 1890	Femmes au chien, 1891	Intimite', 1891
Femmes au jardin, 1891	Le Cid (The Conqueror), 1891-2	Le Peignoir, 1892
Crepuscule ou La Partie de croquet, 1892	Rue a Eragny-sur-Oise ou Les Chiens a Eragny, 1893	Le Cheval de Fiacre ou Les Batignolles avec la devanture fle, 1895
Le Cheval de fiacre, c. 1895	Le Petit Dejeuner de Misia, 1895-7	Promenade des nourrices ou Frise des Fiacres, 1897
Jeune Femme a' la lampe, 1898	Coin de rue, 1899	Boulevard de Clichy, c. 1911, Modern Art, Dublin
Coffee, 1915, Tate Modern	The Bowl of Milk, c 1919, Tate Modern	Nu devant la glace, 1934, Modern Art, Paris
Le Jardin, 1936, Modern Art, Paris	Nu dans le bain, 1936, Modern Art, Paris

Ceaselessly changed his style. He specialized in decoration early in his career. ‘Beautiful grays’ recommended by Serusier, sometimes flat, relief style of painting.

Subjects:    Like Vuillard, he portrayed life of Bourgeoisie but mingled with Bohemian joy. Interiors, but with open windows, often dressing rooms, often naked, dining rooms with tables pilled with fruits, gardens, but less tidy, his bourgeois are at liberty, holiday, street life in outer suburbs, spontaneity and at some time control use of color "in an attempt to escape into the dream."₃

LIFE

Ecole de Beau Arts, Academy Julian

Earned living doing lithographs and posters. Shared studio with Vuillard and Denis for several years. Exhibited with them 1891-99.

98 - anguish over not being enough of a colorist
00 - Disengaged with Nabi moved towards Impressionism.
05 - "gave impression of being an audacious forerunner of the fauves."₃
07-10 - Several journeys to Belgium, Holland, Italy and England. Alternatively stayed at Vernon and Le Cannet.
12 - remorse over not having patience

Personality:    Ironic, sensitive, bit ragamuffin like Musset or La Fontaine. Hiding emotion.

Loved far eastern arabesques.

3)    The Nabis and their period. Charles Chasse’. Translated by Michael Bullock 1969. Lund Humphries, London. First published French 1960.