BONNARD
Bornon3October1867intheFontenay-aux-
RosessuburbofParis,Bonnardwasanunlikely
artist.Hewasraisedinthebourgeoisieand
encouragedbyhiswealthyparentstopursue
acareerasabanker.Instead,hebecamea
founding member of Les Nabis during his time
at Académie Julian, a private art school in Paris
wherehemixedwithlike-mindedartistswhotook
apragmaticapproachtotheirwork,believingart
shouldhelponetoliveratherthanjustbe
beautiful. Les Nabis also believed art should
accessibletoallratherthantuckedawayin
exclusiveexhibitionsforonlytherichtoenjoy.
Theycreatedworksformassconsumption,which
were used as both commercial posters in the
streetanddecorationsinthehome.Bonnard
alsobeganusingprintlithographytocreate
frontispieces forLa Revue Blanche,anartand
literary magazine.
In1893,BonnardmetMarthedeMéligny,a
companion who was to become the cornerstone
ofhispractice.Initiallyproducingworkwithan
eroticfocus,herfrequentexposureinhisearlyP
ierre Bonnard is an artist of two careers.
His first forays into the art world began
with Les Nabis, a group of avant-garde
artists who first formed in 1890s Paris.
What started as a group of friends who shared
an interest in contemporary art and literature
became a movement which paved the way for
the early 20th-century development of abstract
art, helped along in no small part by the dawn of
Bonnard’s second career from 1912 onwards
as one of the world’s great colourists.
Tate Modern’s new exhibition, Pierre Bonnard:
The Colour of Memory, is the first UK solo show
dedicated to the French artist in more than 20
years. It focuses upon Bonnard’s mature works
and explores how the artist used colour to
capture fleeting moments in time, creating
masterpieces which he would often revisit,
reworking the canvas over several months or even
years. But how exactly did Bonnard come to
develop such a command of his palette and what
inspired the intimate scenes which featured so
heavily in his work during that time?LEFT Dining Room in the
Country, 1913, oil on
canvas, 164.5x205.7cm
ABOVE Coffee (Le Café),
1915, oil on canvas
73x106.4cmMINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART; TATE