Pierre Bonnard

Bonnard, Pierre 

Born Oct. 3, 1867, in Fontenay-aux-Roses; died Jan. 23, 1947, in Le Cannet. French artist.

At the end of the 1880’s, Bonnard studied at the Fine Arts School and the Julian Academy in Paris. He came under the influence of Japanese engravings and P. Gauguin. Bonnard’s landscapes, genre scenes, interiors, nudes, and still lifes (The Beginning of Spring [Little Fauns], 1903–04, Hermitage, Leningrad; and the wall panel Autumn; Garnering Fruit, 1912, Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), which are related to the decorative qualities of latter-day impressionism (the works of C. Monet and A. Renoir), are distinguished by a lyrical, contemplative quality. His posters and color lithographs, with their stylized contours and sharp drawing, subtle views of Paris of the 1890’s painted in muted colors, and the very light pictures and decorative wall panels painted in the 1900’s and 1910’s, are close to the modern style. Bonnard’s works painted from the 1920’s through the 1940’s are notable for their warm and intense colors.

REFERENCE

Terrasse, A. Bonnard. Geneva, 1964.