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Lot Essay
In the 1890s, the writer and art critic André Gide used the term intimisme to describe paintings by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard that depicted scenes of daily life set within domestic interiors. These paintings of women resting, reading, sewing or setting the table, for example, recall the paintings of Johannes Vermeer (1632- 1675) and Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). Bonnard professed his admiration for Chardin throughout his life, but was also influenced by his exposure to Japanese prints and the artistic innovations of the Impressionists.
In Femme accoudée, Bonnard uses earthtones and has built the entire composition around a bold diagonal downward gaze. The rich browns offset the cool blue and white of the figure's dress. The colors in the present painting echo the pensive mood of the sitter. Bonnard's paintings always suggest a mood. They are not fleeting impressions, but meditations on the people, places and things that surrounded him. According to Bonnard: "The artist who paints the emotions creates an enclosed world--the picture--which, like a book, has the same interest no matter where it happens to be. Such an artist, we may imagine, spends a great deal of time doing nothing but looking, both around him and inside him" (quoted in S. Whitfield and J. Elderfield, Bonnard, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1998, p. 9).
In Femme accoudée, Bonnard uses earthtones and has built the entire composition around a bold diagonal downward gaze. The rich browns offset the cool blue and white of the figure's dress. The colors in the present painting echo the pensive mood of the sitter. Bonnard's paintings always suggest a mood. They are not fleeting impressions, but meditations on the people, places and things that surrounded him. According to Bonnard: "The artist who paints the emotions creates an enclosed world--the picture--which, like a book, has the same interest no matter where it happens to be. Such an artist, we may imagine, spends a great deal of time doing nothing but looking, both around him and inside him" (quoted in S. Whitfield and J. Elderfield, Bonnard, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London, 1998, p. 9).