Pierre Bonnard

Maximilien Luce (a gift from the artist)
Thence by descent to the previous owner

Original canvas. The paint surface is beautiful and unvarnished. Under ultra violet light, there is no evidence of retouching. This work is in excellent condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Bonnard's interior scenes are some of his most lavishly decorated and colorful compositions.  The present work, which features the artist's wife Marthe at their dining table, appeals to the senses with its array of overlapping colors and textures that virtually transport the viewer into the scene.  Bonnard once said that he intended for his pictures "to show what one sees when one enters a room all of a sudden," and the present picture exemplifies this objective.

Jean Clair wrote of the experience of looking at Bonnard's paintings.  Clair believed that the artist intended "to paint the feeling of 'visual entirety' that one experiences on entering a room, before one has recognized, distinguished, brought into focus and identified the various details....the revolution in painting, brought about by Bonnard was that, for the first time, a painter attempted to translate onto canvas the data of a vision that is physiologically 'real'... He was the first artist to have attempted to portray on canvas the integrality of the field of vision and so bring nearer to the eye what classical perspective and kept at a distance." (quoted in J. Elderfield, "Seeing Bonnard," in Bonnard (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York & The Tate Gallery, London, 1998, p. 33).