Bonnard, Pierre

Bonnard, Pierre (1867–1947). French painter, lithographer, and designer, born at Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris. His father, an official in the War Ministry, insisted that he study law, but from 1888 he also attended classes at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Julian, where he met several young artists (including his lifelong friend Vuillard), who formed a group of Symbolist painters called the Nabis. After doing military service, 1889–90, he abandoned law and became a full-time artist, initially sharing a studio in Paris with Denis and Vuillard. His first one-man exhibition was at Durand-Ruel's gallery in 1896. At this time, as well as painting, he was producing posters and coloured lithographs, and designing for the stage; he worked on the original production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu-Roi (1896), considered the first work of the Theatre of the Absurd. He prospered steadily in his career and by 1912 was sufficiently distinguished to be offered the Legion of Honour (he declined, as did Roussel, Vallotton, and Vuillard at the same time). In the same year he bought a house at Vernonnet in the Seine Valley and from then until the Second World War he divided his time mainly between this house and the South of France. In 1925 he bought a house called ‘Le Bosquet’ at Le Cannet, near Cannes, and spent his final years there. His life was quiet and uneventful, although he travelled a good deal before the First World War.

Like Vuillard, Bonnard is best known for intimate domestic scenes to which the term Intimiste is applied. He generally painted on a larger scale than Vuillard, however, and with greater richness and splendour of colour. His favourite model was his wife, and some of his most characteristic pictures are those in which he depicted her in the bath (she had an obsession with personal cleanliness and spent much of her time in the bathroom). His other subjects included flowers and landscapes. He also did numerous self-portraits. The late ones show his desolation after the death of his wife in 1940, but in general his work radiates a sense of warmth and well-being. This quality and his lively broken brushwork make him one of the most distinguished upholders of the Impressionist tradition. In the catalogue of a large exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy, London, in 1966, Denys Sutton referred to Bonnard as ‘the most important “pure” painter of his generation’ and wrote that ‘His paint has something almost edible about it, and it was hardly fortuitous that he so often painted meals and food on the table'.

After the death of his wife, Bonnard faked a will in her name to avoid certain legal complications. This went undetected during his lifetime, but after his own death it caused lengthy lawsuits, as a result of which his substantial collection of his own work was sequestered from public view for many years.