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Lot Essay
The ease with which Pierre Bonnard translated facets of modern life into a dynamic force on canvas helped catapult his reputation from a very early stage. As John Rewald observed:
Bonnard set out to capture in his work what no other painter of his time had observed: the little incidents of Parisian life... Bonnard descended into the streets and the squares, watching with equal interest people, horses, dogs and trees... broad avenues, busy street vendors, cafés on sidewalks offered him their intricate patterns, their noisy agitation (J. Rewald, Pierre Bonnard, New York, 1948, pp. 25-26).
Bonnard's impressions of urban life, translations of his vision of the city of light, were produced from memory, rather than en plein air, in the intimacy of his own studio.
Bonnard set out to capture in his work what no other painter of his time had observed: the little incidents of Parisian life... Bonnard descended into the streets and the squares, watching with equal interest people, horses, dogs and trees... broad avenues, busy street vendors, cafés on sidewalks offered him their intricate patterns, their noisy agitation (J. Rewald, Pierre Bonnard, New York, 1948, pp. 25-26).
Bonnard's impressions of urban life, translations of his vision of the city of light, were produced from memory, rather than en plein air, in the intimacy of his own studio.