Pierre Bonnard

Estate of the artist
Private Collection
Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York
Acquired from the above in 1971

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1940-47 et supplément 1887-1939, vol. IV, Paris, 1974, no. 1991, illustrated p. 312

Oil on canvas, lined. Surface is in generally good condition. Two horizontal lines evident in the lower right quadrant inherent to the weave of the canvas. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent.
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Pierre Bonnard was fascinated by the buzzing Parisian street scene. The spectacle of urban modernity provided a colorful source of inspiration and the artist was captivated by the variety of subjects it offered, including street sellers, elegant bourgeois ladies, old-fashioned and modern modes of transport and urban architecture. In La rue, orgue de Barbarie, painted in 1911, Bonnard captures not only the passers-by performing their daily tasks or aimlessly wandering the streets as modern flâneurs, but also a lone figure strolling with a street organ in the distant background. The artist achieves a visual vibrancy with the figures crossing each other through different picture planes, while evoking the cacophony of the street by depicting the barrel organ in the background. The present work charms all the senses; one can almost hear the voices inhabiting the city whilst a captivating tune plays in the background, a “stopping-of-time” re-lived by the contemporary viewer.