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拍品專文
The early 1920s saw great change in Bonnard's personal and professional life. An extra-marital affair with Renée Monchaty, begun around 1920 and the inspiration for a number of paintings of the blonde Renée, ended tragically with her suicide in a Paris hotel room in 1924. The following summer, Bonnard finally married Marthe de Méligny, his companion of over thirty years. On the professional front, Claude Roger-Marx claimed in 1924 that the collapse of cubism and the rapel à l'ordre in the aftermath of the First World War meant that the time of injustice was over and Bonnard was rediscovered, “his charms had recovered their power” (Pierre Bonnard, Paris, 1924, p. 3). Bonnard's reputation spread abroad for the first time and dealers began to compete for his work. In April 1924, the Galerie Druet held a major retrospective of his work and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune gave him a one-man show in the summer.
In the present painting, Marthe appears to stand utterly still and silent, looking out of the picture plane straight at the viewer, while the geometry of the stairwell has a calm, almost rhythmic quality. Marthe's natural shyness–Antoine Terrasse, the artist's grand-nephew, tells of how she would carry an umbrella to shield herself from attention when out in public–in all likelihood exacerbated by Bonnard's affair, would eventually lead to a withdrawal from public life.
Bonnard's stated aim “To show what one sees on first entering a room, what the eye takes at first glance” (quoted in T. Hyman, Bonnard, London, 1998, p. 136) may inform the composition of La robe rouge. In the quiet, well-trodden rooms of the house, he made notes in his journal of color patterns or fleeting observations that sparked his impulse to begin a picture. He then painted from memory back in his studio, on lengths of canvas tacked directly to the wall, transforming his initial visual experiences into variegated tapestries of brilliant color.
The domestic mood of La robe rouge recalls Bonnard's works of the 1890s. However, the dark tonality of his early style, where earth colors dominate, has given way to a palette of radiant reds, blues and whites. The modulation of colors, particularly evident in the present work in the titular red dress and patterned coat, is another departure from earlier practice, where flat planes of color were preferred. Instead here we see effects that presage the variegated hues of the late paintings. Moreover, the scumbled application of pigment in the present work creates a subtle texture which helps in Bonnard's aim to see “vibration” in his paintings. “The principal subject is the surface,” Bonnard maintained, “which has its laws over and above those of objects. It’s not a matter of painting life, it’s a matter of giving life to painting” (quoted in N. Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 171).
In the present painting, Marthe appears to stand utterly still and silent, looking out of the picture plane straight at the viewer, while the geometry of the stairwell has a calm, almost rhythmic quality. Marthe's natural shyness–Antoine Terrasse, the artist's grand-nephew, tells of how she would carry an umbrella to shield herself from attention when out in public–in all likelihood exacerbated by Bonnard's affair, would eventually lead to a withdrawal from public life.
Bonnard's stated aim “To show what one sees on first entering a room, what the eye takes at first glance” (quoted in T. Hyman, Bonnard, London, 1998, p. 136) may inform the composition of La robe rouge. In the quiet, well-trodden rooms of the house, he made notes in his journal of color patterns or fleeting observations that sparked his impulse to begin a picture. He then painted from memory back in his studio, on lengths of canvas tacked directly to the wall, transforming his initial visual experiences into variegated tapestries of brilliant color.
The domestic mood of La robe rouge recalls Bonnard's works of the 1890s. However, the dark tonality of his early style, where earth colors dominate, has given way to a palette of radiant reds, blues and whites. The modulation of colors, particularly evident in the present work in the titular red dress and patterned coat, is another departure from earlier practice, where flat planes of color were preferred. Instead here we see effects that presage the variegated hues of the late paintings. Moreover, the scumbled application of pigment in the present work creates a subtle texture which helps in Bonnard's aim to see “vibration” in his paintings. “The principal subject is the surface,” Bonnard maintained, “which has its laws over and above those of objects. It’s not a matter of painting life, it’s a matter of giving life to painting” (quoted in N. Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 171).