Lot 222
  • 222

Pierre Bonnard

Estimate
450,000 - 550,000 GBP
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Description

  • Pierre Bonnard
  • Nature morte aux pĂȘches et au pot jaune
  • stamped Bonnard  (upper right)
  • oil on canvas
  • 50.3 by 44.3cm., 19 3/4 by 17 1/2 in.

Provenance

Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owners in 1955

Literature

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint 1920-1939, Paris, 1973, vol. III, no. 1468, illustrated p. 369

Condition

The canvas is lined. UV examination reveals a tiny speck of retouching to the upper left corner, otherwise this work appears to be in overall good condition.
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Catalogue Note

The glistening earthenware and vibrant arrangement of peaches in Nature morte aux pêches et au pot jaune combine the intimisme of Bonnard's earlier Nabis pictures with the vibrant colouration of his later work, and as such it marks a major achievement in his œuvre. As the artist himself admitted, such beguiling imagery represented a serious challenge in his art: ‘I often see interesting things to paint around me, but for me to have the desire to paint them, they must have a special seduction - beauty - what one could call beauty. I paint them trying to keep control of my original idea, but I am weak, and if I let myself go […] in a moment, I have lost my first impression, and I no longer know where I am going’ (quoted in Bonnard: The Late Paintings (exhibition catalogue), The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. & Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 1984, p. 138).

The beautifully rendered bowl of fruit and pitcher stand in contrast to the more loosely defined background, underscoring an intensity of focus on the principal subject. The cropped format emphasises the typically intimiste character of the scene, while the unstable and elevated viewpoint is strongly reminiscent of Matisse's immersive still lifes and interior scenes. The cheerful chequered tablecloth is a further nod to Matisse, in particular to his Nature morte, serviette à carreau of 1903. As Elie Faure has remarked, Bonnard ‘has this, as do all masters: the surprising freedom that there are so very many things to love all at once, and to understand almost as quickly, to reproduce according to the new order of his being, in a rhythm that confuses and amazes every time' (quoted in Les Cahiers d'aujourd'hui, December 1912, pp. 263-266).

Discussing Bonnard's still lifes, Dita Amory has described how the artist developed relationships with objects he painted, enabling him to reveal a particular beauty that otherwise might be overlooked: ‘In all his waking moments, Bonnard was searching for the shock of an image, for its potential to become a painting. In that sense he was not a voyeur but a silent witness, someone simultaneously inside and outside of any given moment. His discreet presence in the room where he worked gave him status equal to that of the objects he painted; he was one with the chair, the sugar bowl, the teapot, the saltcellar. In order to paint an object he needed to be familiar with it, to see it sympathetically, or as having its own personality. Once, when asked to consider some charming ensemble as a potential still life, he responded simply, “I haven't lived with that long enough to paint it”’ (Dita Amory, ‘The Presence of Objects: Still Life in Bonnard's Late Paintings,’ in Pierre Bonnard, The Late Still Lifes and Interiors (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 26).