Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) Painting Arcadia

Legion of Honor, San Francisco
February 6–May 15, 2016

Pierre Bonnard, The Large Garden, 1895. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Musee d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

SAN FRANCISCO (March 17, 2015)—The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are pleased to announce Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia, the first major international presentation of Pierre Bonnard’s work to be mounted on the West Coast in half a century. The exhibition will feature more than seventy works that span the artist’s complete career, from his early Nabi masterpieces, through his experimental photography, to the late interior scenes for which he is best known.
The exhibition celebrates Bonnard as one of the defining figures of modernism in the transitional period between impressionism and abstraction. Several themes from Bonnard’s career will emerge, including the artist’s great decorative commissions where the natural world merges with the bright colors and light of the South of France, where windows link interior and exterior spaces, and where intimate scenes disclose unexpected phantasmagorical effects.

“Bonnard’s arcadia is filled with poetry, wit, color and warmth,” said Esther Bell, curator in charge of European paintings. “This selection of highlights from his career will make clear the artist’s important role in the history of French modernism.”

Among the many significant paintings on view will be Man and Woman (1900, Musée d’Orsay), in which the artist has depicted his lifelong companion and one of his constant subjects, Marthe de Méligny. Also featured will be such masterpieces as The Boxer (Self-Portrait) (1931, Musée d’Orsay) and The Work Table (1926–1937, National Gallery of Art); and decorative panels and screens, including View from Le Cannet (1927, Musée Bonnard) and Pleasure (1906–1910, Musée d’Orsay).
Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia will offer a fresh interpretation of Bonnard's repertoire, and a reconsideration of the artist as one of the foremost practitioners of modernism.

Pierre Bonnard, "Self-Portrait of the Artist," 1930. Watercolor, gouche and pencil on wove paper. 65 x 50 cm. Collection Triton Foundation © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Woman with a Cat, or The Demanding Cat," 1912. Oil on canvas. 78 x 77.5 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Man and Woman," 1900. Oil on canvas. 115 x 72.3 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "The Dressing Table," 1908. Oil on canvas. 52 x 45.5 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "The Checkered Blouse," 1892. Oil on canvas. 61 x 33 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

 Pierre Bonnard, "The Large Garden," 1895. Oil on canvas. 168 x 221 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Dancers," 1896. Oil on cardboard. 28 x 36 cm. Musée d'Orsay © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
About the Artist

 Pierre Bonnard, "The Work Table," 1926-37. Oil on canvas. 121.9 x 91.4 cm. National Gallery of Art © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Nude in an Interior," 1912-1914. Oil on canvas. 134 x 69.2 cm. National Gallery of Art © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Homage to Maillol," 1917. Oil on canvas. 48 x 18.5 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "Self-Portrait," c. 1904. Oil on canvas. 18 1/8 x 18 ¾. cm. Private Collection © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "View of the Old Port, Saint-Tropez," 1911. Oil on canvas. 83.8 x 86.4. cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Pierre Bonnard, "House amoung the Trees ("My Caravan" at Vernonnet)," ca. 1918. Oil on canvas. 48.6 x 42.2 cm. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
 

Born just outside of Paris in 1867, Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) was the son of a high-ranking bureaucrat in the French War Ministry. In 1887 he enrolled in classes at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he became a student and follower of Paul Gauguin. Gauguin’s teaching inspired a group of young painters known as Les Nabis (after the Hebrew words navi or nabi, meaning prophet), with whom Bonnard joined.

By the early years of the 20th century, the Nabis had disbanded, and for the remainder of his career, Bonnard resisted affiliation with any particular school. Instead, he alternated between the themes and techniques of the Impressionists and the abstract visual modes of modernism.

Bonnard worked in many genres and techniques, including painting, drawing and photography. From the domestic and urban scenes of his early Nabi period to the great elegies of the 20th century, Bonnard’s output is grounded in a modernity that was transformed by his knowledge of works from other cultures, including Japanese woodblock prints and Mediterranean mosaics.

Exhibition Organization

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, and the Fundación MAPFRE, Madri