Pierre Bonnard(French: [bɔnaʁ]; 3 October 1867 – 23 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator,

and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use
of color.[1] He was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les
Nabis,[2] and his early work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, and the prints
of Hokusai and other Japanese artists. He was a leading figure in the transition from impressionism to
modernism. He painted landscapes, urban scenes, portraits and intimate domestic scenes, where the
backgrounds, colors and painting style usually took precedence over the subject

Bonnard received pressure from a different direction to continue painting. While he had received his
license to practice law in 1888, he failed in the examination for entering the official registry of lawyers.
[13] Art was his only option. After the summer holidays, he joined with his friends from the Academy
Julien to form Les Nabis, an informal group of artists with different styles and philosophies but common
artistic ambitions. At the time, Bonnard, as he later wrote, was entirely unaware of the impressionist
painters, or of Gauguin and other new painters.[13] His friend Paul Sérusier showed him a painting on a
wooden cigar box he made after visiting Paul Gauguin at Pont-Aven, using, like Gauguin, patches of
pure color. In 1890 Denis, at age twenty, formalized the doctrine: "a painting was simply "a surface
plane covered with colors assembled in a certain order." [14]
Some of the Nabis had highly religious, philosophical or mystical approaches to their paintings, but
Bonnard remained more cheerful and un-ideological. The painter-writer Aurelien Lugné-Poe, who
shared a studio at 28 rue Pigalle with Bonnard and Vuillard, wrote later, "Pierre Bonnard was the
humorist among us; his nonchalant gaiety, and humor expressed in his productions, of which the
decorative spirit always preserved a sort of satire, from which he later departed." [15]
In 1891, he met Toulouse-Lautrec and in December 1891 showed his work at the annual exhibition of
the Société des Artistes Indépendants. In the same year Bonnard also began an association with La
Revue Blanche, for which he and Édouard Vuillard designed frontispiece[16] In March 1891, his work
was displayed with the work of the other Nabis at the Le Barc de Boutteville. [11]
The style of Japanese graphic arts became an important influence on Bonnard. In 1893 A major
exposition of works of Utamaro and Hiroshige was held at the Durand-Rouel Gallery, and the Japanese
influence, particularly the use of multiple points of view, and the use of bold geometric patterns in
clothing, such as checkered blouses, began to appear in his work. Because of his passion for Japanese
art, his nickname among the Nabis became Le Nabi le trés japonard.[11]
He devoted an increasing amount of attention to decorative art, designing furniture, fabrics, fans and
other objects. He continued to design posters for France-Champagne, which gained him an audience
outside the art world. In 1892 he began to produce lithographs, and painted two of his early notable
works, Le Corsage a carreaux and La Partie de croquet. He also made a series of illustrations for the
music books of his brother-in-law, Claude Terrasse.
In 1894 he turned in a new direction and made a series of paintings of scenes of the life of Paris. In his
urban scenes, the buildings and even animals were the focus of attention; faces were rarely visible. He
also made his first portrait of his future wife, Marthe, whom he married in 1925. [11] In 1895 he became
an early participant of the movement of Art Nouveau, designing a stained glass window,
called Maternity, for Tiffany.[11]
In 1895, he had his first individual exposition of paintings, posters and lithographs at the Durand-Ruel
Gallery. He also illustrated a novel, Marie, by Peter Nansen, published in series by in La Revue
Blanche. The following year he participated in a group exposition of Nabis at the Amboise Vollard
Gallery. In 1899, he took part in another major exposition of works of the Nabis. [11]
Throughout the early 20th century, as artistic styles appeared and disappeared with almost dizzying
speed, Bonnard kept refining and revising his personal style, and exploring new subjects and media,
but keeping the distinct characteristics of his work. Working in his studio at 65 rue de Douai in Paris, he
presented paintings at the Salon des Independents in 1900, and also made 109 lithographs
for Parallèment, a book of poems by Verlaine.[17] He also took part in an exhibition with the other Nabis
at the Bernheim Jeaune gallery. He presented nine paintings at the Salon des Independents in 1901. In
1905 he produced a series of nudes and of portraits, and in 1906 had a personal exposition at the
Bernheim-Jeune Gallery. In 1908 he illustrated a book of poetry by Octave Mirbeau, and made his first
long stay in the South of France, at the home of the painter Manguin in Saint-Tropez. in 1909, and in
1911 began a series of decorative panels, called Méditerranée, for the Russian art patron Pavel
Morozov.[18]
During the years of the First World War, Bonnard concentrated on nudes and portraits, and in 1916
completed a series of large compositions, including La Pastorale, Méditterranée, La Paradis
Terreste and Paysage de Ville. His reputation in the French art establishment was secure; in 1918 he
was selected, along with Renoir, as an honorary President of the Association of Young French Artists.
[18]

In the 1920s, he produced illustrations for a book by Andre Gide (1924) and another by Claude
Anet (1923). He showed works at the Autumn Salon in 1923, and in 1924 was honored with a
retrospective of sixty-eight of his works at the Galerie Druet. In 1925 he purchased a villa in Cannes.[18]
In 1938 his works and Vuillard were featured at an exposition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The
outbreak of World War II in September 1939, forced Bonnard to depart Paris for the south of France,
where he remained until the end of the war. Under the German occupation, he refused to paint an
official portrait of the French collaborationist leader, Marechal Petain, but accepted a commission to
paint a religious painting of Saint Francis de Sales, with the face of his friend Vuillard, who had died two
years earlier.[19]
He finished his last painting, The Almond Tree in Blossom, a week before his death in his cottage on La
Route de Serra Capeou near Le Cannet, on the French Riviera, in 1947. The Museum of Modern Art in
New York City organized a posthumous retrospective of Bonnard's work in 1948, although originally it
was meant to be a celebration of the artist's 80th birthday.