Lot Essay
In 1896, when Pissarro began work on his series of paintings of the river-port city of Rouen, Bonnard and his fellow Nabi, Edouard Vuillard, were already there - drawing and painting the city throughout the decade.
It was during this time that Nicholas Watkins perceives a "developing tension in Bonnard's art between his growing interest in Impressionism and the achievements of the Nabis style which had made his name... (He) was supported in his move away from Symbolism by Vuillard and to a lesser extent Roussel ... They firmly equated Impressionism with a transient form of naturalism. Looking back on this period in 1937, Bonnard told an interviewer: 'When my friends and I decided to pick up the research of the Impressionists and try to take it further, we wanted to outshine them in their naturalistic impressions of colour. Art is not nature. We were stricter in composition. There was a lot more to be got out of colour as a means of expression'. Like many of the Impressionists, Bonnard had evolved a seasonal routine, working in the Spring in the Seine valley and then at his family home at le Grand-Lemps in the summer and early autumn, returning to Paris for the winter" (N. Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 61).
Although he spent less and less time in Paris after 1900, Bonnard continued to paint modern city life and his images of the capital recall numerous Impressionist precedents. The cityscapes of Camille Pissarro and Gustave Caillebotte had clearly had a great effect on the young Bonnard. He followed their example, immortalizing Paris's well-known avenues and environs. Compare, for example, Le Boulevard Extérieur with Pissarro's La rue Honoré, effet de soleil, matin, Place du Théâtre français of 1898 (fig. 1).
There are, however, significant differences between the works of Bonnard and that of the Impressionists. Pissarro's city scene appears grand and impersonal, whilst Bonnard's view is more familiar and informal, painted by a metropolitan native rather than a visitor to the city. Pissarro tended to adopt sweeping perspectives, but Bonnard radically abridges the perspective of Le Boulevard Extérieur by setting it within clear horizontal and vertical axes. In some senses he has not completely shaken off his 'intimiste' approach, he is interested in the human aspect of town life and even when he adopts an aerial perspective which distances him from the scene, the focus is still on the human activity in the busy city streets below. Here, blurred figures hurry on their way, horses and carriages fill the boulevard, people look down from the balcony of the apartment building opposite. The simplification of subject-matter and the emphasis on harmonious colour patterns indicate that Bonnard wished to capture the flavour of contemporary city life rather than its detail. Images and impressions are distilled in his memory and given life through animated brushwork and a richly varied palette. In this way it is possible to see how Bonnard has indeed achieved his aim to go beyond the Impressionists. A much smaller work but nonetheless significant, entitled Paysage parisien (Dauberville 312) which was once part of the Canonne Collection, depicts the Boulevard Clichy from the same view-point, and here the detail is suppressed still further in an effort to catch the mood of momentous activity in the city street.
"It was André Mellerio who noted that in such works Bonnard knew how to capture 'without making the scene lose its velvety quality, the delicate kaleidoscope and always unexpected display of fireworks which constitute Paris. His was a vision of a complicated civilisation engaged in ceaseless movement where everything has its note of colour and profits from it'. Again, as Gustave Geffroy pointed out, 'no-one is quicker than Bonnard to seize the look of our Parisian streets, the silhouette of a passerby and the patch of colour which stands out in the Metropolitan mist. His pencil is never still, quick and supple as a monkey, it seizes on all the momentary phenomena of the street, even the most fugitive glances are caught and set down" (Exh. cat., Pierre Bonnard, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1966, p. 16).
It was during this time that Nicholas Watkins perceives a "developing tension in Bonnard's art between his growing interest in Impressionism and the achievements of the Nabis style which had made his name... (He) was supported in his move away from Symbolism by Vuillard and to a lesser extent Roussel ... They firmly equated Impressionism with a transient form of naturalism. Looking back on this period in 1937, Bonnard told an interviewer: 'When my friends and I decided to pick up the research of the Impressionists and try to take it further, we wanted to outshine them in their naturalistic impressions of colour. Art is not nature. We were stricter in composition. There was a lot more to be got out of colour as a means of expression'. Like many of the Impressionists, Bonnard had evolved a seasonal routine, working in the Spring in the Seine valley and then at his family home at le Grand-Lemps in the summer and early autumn, returning to Paris for the winter" (N. Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 61).
Although he spent less and less time in Paris after 1900, Bonnard continued to paint modern city life and his images of the capital recall numerous Impressionist precedents. The cityscapes of Camille Pissarro and Gustave Caillebotte had clearly had a great effect on the young Bonnard. He followed their example, immortalizing Paris's well-known avenues and environs. Compare, for example, Le Boulevard Extérieur with Pissarro's La rue Honoré, effet de soleil, matin, Place du Théâtre français of 1898 (fig. 1).
There are, however, significant differences between the works of Bonnard and that of the Impressionists. Pissarro's city scene appears grand and impersonal, whilst Bonnard's view is more familiar and informal, painted by a metropolitan native rather than a visitor to the city. Pissarro tended to adopt sweeping perspectives, but Bonnard radically abridges the perspective of Le Boulevard Extérieur by setting it within clear horizontal and vertical axes. In some senses he has not completely shaken off his 'intimiste' approach, he is interested in the human aspect of town life and even when he adopts an aerial perspective which distances him from the scene, the focus is still on the human activity in the busy city streets below. Here, blurred figures hurry on their way, horses and carriages fill the boulevard, people look down from the balcony of the apartment building opposite. The simplification of subject-matter and the emphasis on harmonious colour patterns indicate that Bonnard wished to capture the flavour of contemporary city life rather than its detail. Images and impressions are distilled in his memory and given life through animated brushwork and a richly varied palette. In this way it is possible to see how Bonnard has indeed achieved his aim to go beyond the Impressionists. A much smaller work but nonetheless significant, entitled Paysage parisien (Dauberville 312) which was once part of the Canonne Collection, depicts the Boulevard Clichy from the same view-point, and here the detail is suppressed still further in an effort to catch the mood of momentous activity in the city street.
"It was André Mellerio who noted that in such works Bonnard knew how to capture 'without making the scene lose its velvety quality, the delicate kaleidoscope and always unexpected display of fireworks which constitute Paris. His was a vision of a complicated civilisation engaged in ceaseless movement where everything has its note of colour and profits from it'. Again, as Gustave Geffroy pointed out, 'no-one is quicker than Bonnard to seize the look of our Parisian streets, the silhouette of a passerby and the patch of colour which stands out in the Metropolitan mist. His pencil is never still, quick and supple as a monkey, it seizes on all the momentary phenomena of the street, even the most fugitive glances are caught and set down" (Exh. cat., Pierre Bonnard, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1966, p. 16).