Bonnard2023

Pierre Bonnard

JILL NEWHOUSE

Pierre Bonnard

Jill Newhouse Gallery

4 East 81 st Street New York, NY Tel ( 212 ) 249-9216 info@jillnewhouse.com www.jillnewhouse.com

This catalogue accompanies an exhibition on view from May 4 to May 26, 2023

Jill Newhouse Gallery 4 East 81 st Street New York, NY 10028 Tel ( 212 ) 249-9216 info@jillnewhouse.com www.jillnewhouse.com Catalogue by Jill Newhouse, Christa Savino, and Amelia Gorman

front cover: Panoramic View of Cannet, c. 1930 (detail, cat. no. 6) back cover: O, Ombre (drawing for Un Alphabet sentimental) , 1893 (detail, cat. no. 1 )

copyright 2023 jill newhouse llc design by lawrence sunden, inc.

catalogue

1. O, Ombre (drawing for Un Alphabet sentimental) , 1893

Brush and india ink with pencil on paper 7¼ x 7 7 ⁄ 8 in. ( 18 . 4 x 20 cm) Stamped with monogram, lower right

provenance: Estate of the artist; Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London; E.V. Thaw & Co., New York; D’Offay Couper Gallery, London; Acquired from the above by Dr. George S. Heyer, Jr., December 1969 .

literature: New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pierre Bonnard The Graphic Art , December 5 , 1989 –January 4 , 1990 , p. 63 (ill. fig. 79 ); Guy-Patrice et Floriane Dauberville. Bonnard: catalogue raisonné des aquarelles, gouaches, pastels, crayons de couleur et lavis . Paris: Editions G-P.F. Dauberville & Archives Bernheim-Jeune, 2021 . Vol I, no. 107 , p. 9 . Our drawing is a proposal for the unrealized project Un Alphabet sentimental , a children’s book on the alphabet. The letter O stands for the French word “ombre” which means shadow, and the shadow figures depicted are Bonnard’s sister and nephew,

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Andrée and her son Charles Terrasse. Our drawing is a perfect combination of the abstract and representational elements that came to define the work of the Nabi period. In a letter to his mother, dated February 11 , 1893 , Bonnard wrote: “I have found a patron whom, seduced by my drawings for the Solfège, has asked me to do an album for children. I’m going to make an Alphabet sentimental . Isn’t the title pretty? To each letter will correspond a word beginning with that letter, signifying a passion or a state of soul, and which I will render by familiar little scenes in which there will be babies, animals, landscapes, etc. . . . It’s a question of making beings and things speak.”

2. The Little Street or Boulevard des Batignolles , c. 1903

Oil on canvas 12 1 ⁄

8 × 8 ½ inches ( 30 . 7 × 21 . 6 cm)

Signed lower right

provenance: Private collection, Paris, since 1954 ; Jill Newhouse Gallery (sold by) 2012 ; To Private collection; Repurchased 2017 .

exhibitions: London, Wildenstein. Paris in the Nineties . May 12 –June 23 , 1954 , no. 5 ; Vevey, Musée Jenisch. Paris 1900 . July 17 –September 26 , 1954 , no. 4 ; Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne. Bonnard, Vuillard, et les Nabis . 1955 , no catalogue; Paris, Galerie Huguette Beres. Bonnard, Roussel, Vuillard. May 8 –June 6 , 1957 , no. 13 ; Paris, Musée Jacquemart-Andre. 100 chefs d’oeuvres des collections privées . July 12 – September 12 , 1961 , no. 106 . literature: Jean and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint . Paris: Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1966 , Vol. I, no. 296 , p. 276 . Legend has it the 26 year old Bonnard meet the 16 year old Marthe crossing a Paris street in 1893 . Our painting done a few years later is probably a reminiscence of this moment.

3. House in the Valley , c. 1922

Watercolor, oil, gouache and pencil on paper 11 x 15 3 ⁄ 8 inches ( 28 x 39 cm) Signed lower left provenance: James Kirkman, London; Neffe Degandt Fine Art, London; Sold by Jill Newhouse Gallery, 2006 ; Private Collection.

From 1910 to 1938 , Bonnard lived in a house he named Ma Roulotte (My Gypsy Caravan) in the town of Vernon close to Giverny. Throughout 1922 , he recorded views of the sloping road leading to Vernon and the village roof tops, oddly abstracted by their positions among the hills. Bonnard was a great admirer of Monet, now nearly his neighbor, and during this time his brush work began to broaden and his palette to brighten. In this work, Bonnard recorded the brightness of greens and blues in the diffused and cloudy Normandy light with extraordinary layers of colors and a variety of marks. Bonnard’s distinctive pencil work can be seen through layers of gouache and oil paints as he worked to catch the movement and freshness of the countryside.

4. The Docks at Deauville , c. 1925 Verso: Port Scene

Watercolor over pencil on paper 4¼ x 5 in. ( 11 x 13 cm)

provenance: Kyra Gerard and Alfred Ayrton; David Grob (Artists, Monte Carlo); JPL Fine Art; Private Collection.

verso

5. Sailboats at the Entrance to a Port, c. 1925

Watercolor over pencil on paper 4¼ x 5 in. ( 11 x 13 cm)

provenance: Kyra Gerard and Alfred Ayrton; David Grob (Artists, Monte Carlo); JPL Fine Art; Private Collection.

6. Panoramic View of Cannet , c. 1930

Oil on canvas 19 x 21¼ in. ( 48 . 3 x 54 cm) Stamped signature lower left

literature: Jean and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint . Paris: Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1992 . Vol. I, no. 1418 ; Serrano Veronique, Musee Bonnard (Le Cannet France). Bonnard: Le Cannet Une É vidence . Cinisello Balsamo Milano: Silvana editoriale; 2020 . excat. p. 101 . After making annual visits to Le Cannet for many years, Bonnard acquired a villa in 1926 which he named Le Bosquet, or “the grove” for the grove of trees that surrounded it. Local records relate that on 27 January 1926 , Bonnard paid 50 , 000 francs for “the property planted with orange trees, containing a two-story house and two reservoirs fed by the water of the Canal de la Sciagne, situated in the Avenue Victoria.” It was here that the artist whom Henri Matisse once described as “the greatest of us all” chose to pass the later years of his life and where he painted some of his most iconic works. Bonnard became devoted to painting the exterior and interior views, and was able to greatly expand his ongoing experimentation with color and light.

7. L’Escalier , c. 1932

Oil and gouache on paper, laid down on canvas 25¼ x 19 ½ in. ( 64 . 1 x 49 . 5 cm) Signed lower left provenance: Eugene Victor Thaw & Co., New York; Private collection, acquired from the above in 1964 ; By descent to the current owner.

This work depicts the interior stairs of the Bonnard house at Le Cannet with the couple’s dog at the bottom of the stairs and Marthe peeking out from the right. Other depictions of this scene include “L’Escalier au tableau” in the collection of the Musée de l’Abbaye, Saint Claude (illustrated in Bonnard et Le Cannet dans la Lumière de la Mediterranée ) and a later drawing “Escalier de l’Interieur de la Villa du Bosquet” ( Bonnard Inédits , 2003 , figure 343 ).

8. Le Cannet , 1941

Oil on canvas 14 1 ⁄

8 × 20 ½ inches ( 36 . 0 × 52 . 0 cm)

Signed lower left

provenance: Galerie Moos, Geneva; Public sale Geneva, Galerie Moos, 1949 , no. 54 ; Jean Salomon, Geneva; JPL Fine Arts, as of 2005 ; Private collection, UK.

literature: Jean and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint . Paris: Editions Bernheim-Jeune, 1992 . Vol. IV, no. 1604 . During World War II, Bonnard maintained his residence at Le Cannet, spending the last ten years of his life there and continuing as a recluse even after Marthe died in 1942 . Shortly before his death he completed the large mural Saint Francis Healing the Sick ( 1947 ) for the Church of Assy in Le Cannet and then finished his last painting The Almond Tree in Blossom a week before his death. The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a posthumous retrospective of Bonnard’s work in 1948 , although originally it was meant to be a celebration of the artist’s 80 th birthday.

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Showing a similar perspective to a painting in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum called Landscape in the South (Le Cannet) c. 1943 , our work has a close-up view of the red roofs and verdant landscape that Bonnard had loved so deeply, and painted so often.

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