Pierre Bonnard

Turner Collection
Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the above in 1924)
René Keller (acquired from the above)
Acquired by the family of the present owner circa 1960

Paris, Editions Bernheim Jeune, Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, 1925

Bulletin de la vie artistique, June 15, 1925, no. 12
'Pierre Bonnard', L'Art d'aujourd'hui, 1927, no. 15, illustrated pl. 41
Jean and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint 1888-1905, vol. I, Paris, no. 338, illustrated p. 304

Good condition. Canvas is lined. Work has been recently cleaned. Under UV, scattered strokes of inpainting - a few pinhead-sized spots in her left eye and cheek, some strokes in her hair and in dark doorway, her skirt and right of her skirt. For the most part, the inpainting is outside of the center of the composition.
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By the turn of the century, Bonnard was one of the best established painters of his time, his success stemming from the popularity of his intimate depictions of domestic interiors and Paris scenes, as well as his keen draughtsmanship. He continued to mature as an artist, and his style slowly began to shift back to the naturalism which he had rejected during his Nabis years. He became more attentive to issues such as color, space and light, as well as the anatomy and gesture of his models. Discussing Bonnard's works of the early years of the twentieth century, James Elliot commented: 'It was then that Bonnard assimilated into his own style technical means of the impressionists - short brush strokes, lighter tonal values, sophisticated hue relationships' (J. Elliot, Bonnard and His Environment (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1964, p. 24).

Jeune Femme lisant, Chapeau, Fleurs is a strong example of this important transitional phase in Bonnard's oeuvre. The scene is probably set in the same interior as a 1905 work titled Jour d'hiver, in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris (Jean and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1965, vol. I, no. 358; fig. 1). Also with an unidentified model, but most likely set in another season, Jour d'hiver is described as follows: 'A transition painting between those of the Nabis period of brown tones and often warm thanks to the lighting of a lamp, and those later, more luminous ones, this interior scene is depicted in clear and soft colors of blue-gray and white, with a reminder of brown and muted nuance of purple.  The artist seems to give equal attention to the beings and things, not disassociating them and therefore creating a certain atmosphere which to him is himself, linked to the slowness of time which elapses, in the silence of domestic life, in its calm and its meditation. Painter of the woman, Bonnard is also a painter of simple moments which makes up the web of his life' (Hommage à Bonnard (exhibition catalogue), Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, 1986, p. 72).

Fig.1 Pierre Bonnard, Jour d'hiver, 1905, Musee d'Orsay