Pierre Bonnard

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Private Collection, Paris
Sale: Ader & Tajan, Paris, circa 1975, lot 30
Private Collection, Switzerland (purchased at the above sale)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Chefs d’œuvre des collections particulières, 1961, no. 109
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Pierre Bonnard, 1984-85
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Pierre Bonnard, Werke aus Schweizer Winterthur, 2004, no. 18

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint révisé et augmenté 1888-1905, Paris, 1992, no. 360, illustrated p. 316

The canvas is not lined. UV examination reveals a few pin-sized spots of retouching to parts of the book shelf, some of which relate to minor paint loss, one spot to the sitter's fringe and a few around the upper rim of her hair. There are a few further very minor spots to the centre of the left edge. Otherwise this work is in overall good condition.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

La Lecture is an enchanting example of Pierre Bonnard’s domestic interiors. The theme of la vie bourgeoise preoccupied the artist from the time of his earlier intimiste scenes of the 1890s until the end of his career. Shortly before painting this composition, Bonnard had travelled extensively in Northern and Southern Europe with various companions including Édouard Vuillard, with whom he travelled to both Italy and Spain. These trips coincided with a new annual schedule in which Bonnard spent an increasing amount of time outside Paris, and it was on these trips outside urban centres that he developed, from his earlier Nabis style, an interest in Impressionism. La lecture, whilst retaining the artist’s interest in intimiste scenes, shows a stylistic evolution away from the flat planes of the Japanese woodblock print.

While his style at this time shifted considerably and later would evolve further with his dramatic use of bright colour, his interest in painting his surroundings never changed. Bonnard was famously private, yet his personal world was publically exhibited in his art. Sarah Whitfield remarks on the intensely personal nature of his paintings: ‘Yet, from the start, this modest and most discreet of men, this least public of artists made his daily life the subject of his art, observing steadily and calmly everything that was closest to him: his family, his surroundings, his companion, his animals, “I have all my subjects to hand”, he said, “I go and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start painting I reflect, I dream...” There is a feeling of closeness, of people living together, quietly going about the mundane household tasks, sitting down to meals together. The moments he chooses to paint are the soothing lulls that punctuate a domestic routine. These are intensely private pictures; as Raymond Cogniat observed: “Bonnard never paints the parts of the house where people work or receive visitors”’ (quoted in Bonnard (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York & The Tate Gallery, London, 1998, pp. 9-10).

As is the case for many of Bonnard’s best interior scenes, this picture requires the viewer to take time to look at the composition and make sense of the spatial relationships among its elements. 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 certainly fulfils this objective. Jean Clair wrote of the experience of looking at Bonnard's paintings, asserting that the artist intended ‘to paint the feeling of “visual entirety” that one experiences on entering a room, before one has recognised, 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 had kept at a distance" (ibid., p. 33).