Pierre Bonnard

Estate of the artist

Charles Terrasse, Paris

Phillip Schuman Foundation, San Francisco

Acquired in 1969 by the present owner

Buenos Aires, Wildenstein Gallery, Bonnard,1965, no. 21, illustrated in the catalogue

Tokyo, Ninonbashi Takashimaya Art Galleries; Kobe, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art; Nagoya, Aichi Cultural Center & Fukuoka, Art Museum, Pierre Bonnard, 1980-81, no. 53, illustrated in color

Geneva, Musée Rath, Pierre Bonnard, 1981, no. 57, illustrated in color in the catalogue

New York, Wildenstein, The Inquiring Eye of Pierre Bonnard, 1981, no. 38, illustrated in color pl. XXI

Madrid, Fundación March; Barcelona, Sala de la Caixa, Bonnard, 1983-84, no. 36, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Pierre Bonnard et son monde enchanté, 1991, no. 55, illustrated in color

New York, PaceWildenstein, Bonnard, Rothko: Color and Light, 1997, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, Pierre Bonnard, 2000, no. 41, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Bonnard, 2000-01, no. 45, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Tokyo, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Sompo Japan Seiji Togo; Kahoshima, Musée Municipal des Beaux-Arts de Kagoshima; Tokushima, Musée Préfectural des Arts Mondernes de Tokushima, Pierre Bonnard, 2004, no. 50, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Annette Vaillant, Bonnard,1965, illustrated in color p. 139 (as dating from 1941)

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, vol. III, Paris, 1973, no. 1295, illustrated p. 243

Michel Terrasse, Bonnard et Le Cannet, Paris, 1987, listed p. 122 (as Les murs jaunes, circa 1927)

Very good condition. The canvas is lined. Under ultra violet light, areas of retouching are visible along the periphery in the blue, mostly to address frame abrasion. No other areas appear to be retouched.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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.

Terrasse dans le Midi was painted in the South of France, and with its long walls bathed in warm yellow sunlight, saturated blue sky and lush green trees, it is a beautiful example of Bonnard’s painting from this region. The scene depicts several figures promenading on a clear summer day when everything around them is glowing. Above the terrasse, a bright white façade, typical of this region and executed in loose, spontaneous brushstrokes, is visible through the trees.

In 1926 Bonnard bought a villa he called ‘Le Bosquet’ at Le Cannet (fig. 1), which provided him with a permanent source of inspiration. Situated above Cannes, on the Côte d’Azur, the house was surrounded by lush vegetation that could be seen from the house. Both the villa and the town itself offered the artist a wide array of subjects to paint, resulting in powerful, boldly coloured compositions. As Jörg Zutter wrote: ‘By 1931 Le Bosquet was Bonnard’s favourite place to work and in 1939 it became the couple’s permanent home. The house and its surroundings provided an ideal work environment for the artist, who continued to paint studies of Marthe, often standing in the bathroom or lying in the tub. He also painted still lifes, self-portraits, interiors and the views onto the countryside from different windows and doors [fig. 2]’ (J. Zutter in Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2003, p. 61).

As a landscape painter, Bonnard was always fascinated by light and colour, and in the present work he beautifully rendered the unique quality of light in the Mediterranean. As James Elliott observed: ‘Bonnard was essentially a colorist. He devoted his main creative energies to wedding his sensations of color from nature to those from paint itself – sensations which he said thrilled and even bewildered him. Perceiving color with a highly developed sensitivity, he discovered new and unfamiliar effects from which he selected carefully, yet broadly and audaciously. […] Whether in narrow range or multitudinous variety, the colours move across the surface of his paintings in constantly shifting interplay, lending an extraordinary fascination to common subject Familiar sights – the pervading greenness of a landscape, the intensification of color in objects on a lightly overcast day – are given vivid life’ (J. Elliott, in Bonnard and His Environment (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1964, p. 25).

The composition of Terrasse dans le Midi is dominated by large areas of pure pigment, particularly the lower half of the canvas, and by the accentuated horizontal lines. This almost abstract treatment of color has been compared to the paintings of Mark Rothko (fig. 3). Writing about the art of Bonnard and Rothko, Bernice Rose observed: ‘They are ultimately united by the idea that color in itself – abstract color – functions as the direct path to emotion, and emotion, flooding the painting with the light of a revelation, opens the way to imagery – to the idea that “whatever is painted lives exclusively through the life of painting.” Bonnard’s story traces and retraces the path of the liberation of color; his gift to Rothko – and Rothko’s debt to him – is the realization of that liberty’ (B. Rose in Bonnard, Rothko: Color and Light (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 5).

 

The present work remained in the artist’s possession until his death in 1947, and was inherited by his nephew Charles Terrasse. Of all his family members, Terrasse is probably the one that Bonnard felt closest to, and his nephew’s admiration for the artist’s work is reflected in a major monograph on Bonnard which Terrasse published in 1927.