Pierre Bonnard (1867 - 1947) — Plate Of Fruit On A Table

Plate of fruit on a table
Ink on paper, stamp lower left, stamp of the initials of the estate lower right.
14 x 22.50 cm

Provenance:
Galerie AB, Paris
Private collection, Paris

Exhibition:
Bonnard-Vuillard, Une amitié, Galerie AB, Paris, 2022, reproduced in the catalog on p. 58 and 59.

Certificate of authenticity established by Mr. Pierre Vernon.

Pierre Bonnard – Painting silent intimacy

Pierre Bonnard was born in 1867 in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He studied law and obtained his degree in 1888. At the same time, he developed a deep passion for painting. He enrolled at the Académie Julian and then entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Although he was sworn in as a lawyer, he chose to devote himself fully to art in the early 1890s. He shared a studio on Rue Pigalle with Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard. He joined the Nabis group, and his taste for Japanese aesthetics earned him the nickname “Nabi très japonard” (very Japanese Nabi).
In 1893, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and met Marthe, who would become his lifelong companion and the almost exclusive model for his nudes until his death. Marthe's body, her presence, and her intimacy became the common thread running through all his work. Bonnard also worked on illustration and poster projects and participated in group exhibitions, notably at Ambroise Vollard's gallery in 1897. He continued to frequent Vuillard, but also Thadée and Misia Natanson, architect Albert Laprade, composer Maurice Ravel, and maintained a regular correspondence with Maurice Denis.
In the summer of 1909, Bonnard stayed in Saint-Tropez, invited by Henri Manguin. He returned there in 1911 with Paul Signac and painted the triptych Méditerranée. From then on, he visited the French Riviera regularly: Cannes, Antibes, then Le Cannet, where he bought a villa in 1926, a year after marrying Marthe. The couple divided their time between Paris (Boulevard des Batignolles) and their house in the south, where the artist found an inexhaustible source of light and comfort.
In 1928, a major solo exhibition was dedicated to him in New York, followed by another at the Wildenstein Gallery. In 1936, Bonnard, alongside Vuillard and Roussel, was commissioned to design the foyer of the Palais de Chaillot theater. In 1942, Marthe died in the midst of World War II. Devastated by grief and the events of the time, Bonnard went through a period of isolation, during which his inspiration became more fragile.
He died in Le Cannet in January 1947. A Pierre Bonnard museum was inaugurated there in 2011. In 2015, the Musée d'Orsay organized a major retrospective exhibition entitled Pierre Bonnard, Painting Arcadia, which was acclaimed by the public and critics alike.

Discover more works by this artist on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-pierre-bonnard