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Lot Essay
Captivated by the vivid atmosphere of the South of France since his second trip there in 1909, Bonnard purchased a house at Le Cannet outside Cannes in 1926. He would divide his time between the North and the South, spending his summers in Vernonnet near Paris and winters in the Midi. Bonnard was immensely attracted by the small village of Le Cannet, which boasted stunning views over Cannes, the Golfe de la Napoule and the mountains of the Esterel. The composition of the present work, with its sense of the depth and enormity of the southern landscape framed on all sides by an immediate foreground, is typical of Bonnard's Le Cannet paintings and recalls the classic idyll of the monumental Paysage du Cannet of 1928. As Nicholas Watkins observes, 'Bonnard's solution to the problem of reconciling depth with the decorative assertion of the surface in the painting was to treat the landscape as a kind of tapestry into which the view was woven' (N. Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 156).
The clarity and intensity of the Mediterranean light was to have a profound effect on Bonnard's palette. In fact, it was the tensions and conflicts between the transient light of the North and the heavy, permanent atmosphere of the South which resulted in Bonnard's colours becoming altogether bolder and his adoption of the strong colouring that was to characterise his later style. Paysage du Midi perfectly encapsulates the luminous colours and radiant atmosphere of the South.
The clarity and intensity of the Mediterranean light was to have a profound effect on Bonnard's palette. In fact, it was the tensions and conflicts between the transient light of the North and the heavy, permanent atmosphere of the South which resulted in Bonnard's colours becoming altogether bolder and his adoption of the strong colouring that was to characterise his later style. Paysage du Midi perfectly encapsulates the luminous colours and radiant atmosphere of the South.