Pierre Bonnard

Galerie Maeght, Paris

O'Hana Gallery, London (by at least 1953)

Private Collection

Rotterdam, Musée Boymans, Bonnard, 1953, no. 94

London, O'Hana Gallery, French Masters of the XIXth and XXth centuries, 1955, no. 1

François-Joachim Beer, "Evocation de Pierre Bonnard," Arts de France, Paris, 1947, illustrated p. 25 (titled Jeune fille au tricot rouge)

Gotthard Jedlicka, Pierre Bonnard: ein Besuch, Zürich, 1949, illustrated opposite p. 224

Thadée Natanson, Le Bonnard que je propose, 1867-1947, Geneva, 1951, illustrated pl. 90

Jean and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue Raisonné de L'Oeuvre Peint, 1940-1947 et Supplément 1887-1939, vol. 4, Paris, 1974, no. 1647, illustrated p. 73

Executed in 1944, Jeune femme peignant was most likely painted at the artist's home in Le Cannet, where he lived after the outbreak of World War II. The picture reflects Bonnard's interest in capturing the activities of women in intimate, interior settings - a recurrent theme in his oeuvre. But unlike other compositions in which his subjects are bathing, dressing, or performing domestic chores, the present work features a young woman caught in a moment of creative inspiration. Here, the model is intently focused on painting, as evidenced by her extended arm and the palette in her left hand. Bonnard has omitted her brush and canvas from his composition, instead magnifying her presence and drawing attention to the radiant colors and unconventional perspective he employed throughout this work. As Nicholas Watkins has noted, "A golden light suffuses [his] late paintings in a nostalgic glow. Bonnard's palette became hotter and richer. Paintings that began in the memory of the first impression - which he aimed to preserve - were transformed through colour into glorious light-filled tapestries" (Nicholas Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 217).

Bonnard was particularly inspired by Japanese prints and Persian miniatures, and his use of color and perspective is a testament to their influence. In the present work, the artist has filled the canvas with rich red, gold and blue hues, which serve to define the spatial elements of the composition. Instead of using traditional perspectival principles, Bonnard emphasized the flatness of his composition: the pattern of the rugs on the floor, the shadows of the table legs, and the curtained window behind the sitter all exist in the same plane. These characteristics allude to Bonnard's experiments in visual perception, and his prowess as a colorist. As Jean Clair explains, "The eye does not keep the world at a distance; it does not carve out a limited area within it. On the contrary, it floats about in it, as in a natural matrix. More than this, the eye moves around, pushes forward, distinguishes what seems unclear, magnifies what seems distant, picks out what it wants, moves away elsewhere, guided as much by the impressions of light as by the action and the sensations of its nerves and muscles" (John Russell, et. al., Bonnard, The Late Paintings, London, 1984, p. 36).