Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) is acknowledged as one of the great masters of twentieth-century painting. Best-known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors, he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman and graphic artist who produced a wealth of drawings and lithographs. In fact Bonnard began his career as a graphic artist, producing posters and illustrations for such magazines as La Revue Blanche. Associated with Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard and other members of the Nabis group from 1890, his early work is characterized by a tendency towards broad, flat colour and asymmetrical composition derived from Gauguin and from Japanese prints. From 1900 his palette became richer and his subject-matter settled into a range of obsessive themes - principally landscapes, nudes and interiors - in which he explored ever more complex formal problems and developed an unparalleled mastery of colour and light. His mature work achieves a level of dazzling intensity which has ensured his enduring reputation as one of the twentieth century's great colourists. In this important reassessment of Bonnard's life and work, Nicholas Watkins argues that Bonnard was not a sentimental survivor of impressionism as some have claimed, but a highly demanding and innovative artist responding to new formal challenges. Paintings, graphic work and sketches are comprehensively reproduced and examined in depth, providing a definitive study of this highly influential but frequently misunderstood artist.