Pierre Bonnard

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the artist)
Juan Alvarez de Toledo, Paris (sale: Christie's, New York, 12th November 1985, lot 31)
Jan Krugier Gallery, New York (purchased at the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner by 1992

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Pierre Bonnard, 1984-85, no. 78, illustrated in the catalogue
Marseille, Musée Cantini, Marseille: Ils collectionnent, 1985, no. 23, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
London, Marlborough Gallery, Masters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, 1986, no. 6
Humlebæk, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Pierre Bonnard, 1992-93, no. 39, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Pierre Bonnard, das Glück zu malen, 1993, no. 18, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Pierre Bonnard, 1994, no. 68, illustrated in colour in the catalogue 
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum, Pierre Bonnard: Werke aus Schweizer Sammlungen, 2004, no. 49, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

François Fosca, Bonnard, Paris, 1919, illustrated pl. XII
François Fosca, 'Pierre Bonnard', in Art et Décoration, vol. XXXVIII, Paris, July-December 1920, illustrated in colour
Tristan Klingsor, 'Pierre Bonnard', in L'Amour de l'Art, no. 8, Paris, August 1921, illustrated p. 244
Gustave Coquiot, Bonnard, Paris, 1922, illustrated pl. 25 (titled Petit déjeuner and as dating from 1916)
François Fosca, Bonnard, Paris, 1923, pp. 40-41, illustrated pl. 12
Claude Roger-Marx, 'Pierre Bonnard', in The Studio, vol. CL, London, 1930, illustrated p. 114
Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1906-1919, Paris, 1968, vol. II, no. 823, illustrated p. 352
Antoine Terrasse, Pierre Bonnard, Leben und Werk, 1989, illustrated p. 123
Raymond Cogniat, Bonnard, Vaduz, 1989, illustrated p. 45
Sarah Whitfield & John Elderfield, Bonnard (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London & The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, mentioned p. 110

Jaune et rouge or La Nappe aux carreaux rouges is a remarkable example of Bonnard's fascination with patterns and decoration. Whilst depicting a familiar theme, that of la vie bourgeoise, the artist used a scene of everyday life in an experimental manner, emphasising the flatness of the painting's surface and creating a complex perspective. The pursuit of everyday activities is a subject that preoccupied Bonnard from the time of his earlier intimiste interiors of the 1890s. The present work was executed in 1915, around the same time as Le Café in the collection of Tate Gallery, London (fig. 1). The setting for both works may be the dining room in the house Bonnard rented at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1915, where he spent a good part of the year. Both pictures show Marthe, the artist's muse and companion, wearing the same dress, sitting with her dog Dingo at the dining room table covered with a red checkered tablecloth. By juxtaposing Marthe's bright orange dress with the bold red and white striped tablecloth of the foreground, Bonnard transformed an everyday scene into a luminous and dynamic composition.

By the time this work was painted, Bonnard's interiors displayed an increasing subtlety of design and arrangement of space. Here the female figure and dog are seated together, tucked to the left, balancing the vertical axis of the composition, as Bonnard has chosen to depict the breakfast scene looking down the length of the table. The abrupt cropping of the figure and side table augments the sense of a closed, intimate space. Bonnard frequently played with traditional notions of perspective placing the central, focal objects of his compositions at the periphery of the picture. Bonnard stated that he sought 'to show what one sees when one enters a room all of a sudden' (quoted in Marcel Arland & Jean Leymarie, Bonnard dans sa lumière, Paris, 1978, p. 21). Jean Clair, discussing this phenomenon, stated that Bonnard wanted 'to paint the feeling of 'visual entirety' that one experiences on entering a room, before one has recognized, distinguished, brought into focus and identified the various details' (J. Clair, Les Aventures du neft optique, Paris, 1984, p. 20).

Fig. 1, Pierre Bonnard, Le Café, oil on canvas, 1915, Tate Gallery, London