Pierre Bonnard

Estate of the artist
Mrs. Genia Zadok, New York (and sold by the estate: Sotheby's, New York, November 12, 1988, lot 389)
Acquired at the above sale

Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum, Pierre Bonnard, 1992-93, no. 50, illustrated in color in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Pierre Bonnard, 1993, no. 21, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Bonnard, 1994, no. 77, illustrated in the catalogue
Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, Pierre Bonnard. Early and Late, 2002-03, no. 85, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1906-1919, vol. II, Paris, 1968, no. 949, illustrated p. 440

Work is in overall good condition. The canvas is lined. There is some minor frame abrasion along the extreme right edge. There are two small spots of surface abrasion in the table towards the center lower edge. Under UV light, there are three one inch lines of retouching in the lower right quadrant to address a flattened crease. There are scattered tiny spots of inpaining present, mostly in the lower left quadrant.
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.

Jeunes femmes au jardin is part of a series of large decorative compositions that Pierre Bonnard completed between 1900 and 1920. Like the Impressionists, the artist presents an image of countryside leisure, most likely a gathering of family members at “Le Clos,” his family’s vacation home in Le Grand-Lemps. The site was where Bonnard, as a child, indulged in his favorite past time of drawing, and it would become the inspiration and setting for many of Bonnard’s best works.

Bonnard’s success is derived from a distinctive combination of Realism, Symbolism and Classicism, not to mention the sensitivity to lighting effects and coloration that characterized his style. Bonnard favored nature and leisure as subject matters, yet unlike the Impressionists who championed plein-air painting, Bonnard often created his images from memory. While his compositions are largely dominated by quick, brushy strokes of paint, the delineation of form is at times punctuated by a linear style mastered during the artist’s early years as a graphic artist. As seen in the present work, line, color and form are all dominant elements of the composition, with every last detail expertly crafted to create an atmospheric image of relaxation. 

Bonnard’s personal style is ultimately driven by his desire to challenge tradition while perfecting the art of representation. His lifelong struggle between Realism and idealism is discussed by Nicholas Watkins: “Bonnard’s ambivalent attitude to Monet’s Impressionism, reinforced by the contemporary reassertion of traditional values, brought on what amounted to a mid-life crisis around 1913. His crisis was not so much one of what to paint as how to paint it. Feeling that he has not been sacrificing form and composition to color, he took himself, he said, back to school. He told his nephew, Charles Terrasse: ‘I drew ceaselessly. And after drawing comes the composition, which must be balanced. A well-composed painting is half done.’ Bonnard’s crisis brought to a head a conflict which could not be resolved simplistically because it went beyond questions of style to his very vision as a painter. For the emphasis on form in its turn carried with it connotations of materialism, of a world tied down in time and dominated by objects and human beings, whereas Bonnard was essentially a painter of mood and atmosphere. His solution as it emerged was novel and totally idiosyncratic. Instead of equating color in traditional academic terms with emotion and drawing with the mind, he reversed the process, maintaining: ‘Drawing is sensation. Color is reasoning’” (Nicholas Watkins, Bonnard, London, 1994, p. 134).