Pierre Bonnard

Madame Claude Terrasse (the sitter, acquired from the artist)

Madame Floury (by descent from the above)

Private Collection, Zürich

Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière, Paris

Acquired from the above

Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Bonnard, 1999, no. 4, illustrated in color in the catalogue
 
Washington D.C., The Phillips Collection & Denver, The Denver Art Museum, Pierre Bonnard: Early and Late, 2002-03 
 

Charles Terrasse, Bonnard, Paris, 1927, no. 5, illustrated p. 33

Antoine Terrasse, Pierre Bonnard, Paris, 1967, illustrated p. 32 

Bernard Dorival, "Le corsage à carreaux et les japonismes de Bonnard," Revue du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1969, no. 1, p. 22

Jean Dauberville and Henri Dauberville, Bonnard: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, vol. I, Paris, 1992, no. 33B, illustrated p. 108bis

Original canvas. Under ultra-violet light, the original paint reads quite strongly in a few places, but there are only three, very small, idolated areas of retouching -- in the hair, the shoulder, and the hand on the right side of the composition. Over all, his work is in very good condition.
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Bonnard's sister Andrée (1872-1923) and her cat are the subjects of this bold portrait, completed at the height of the artist's involvement with the Nabis.  The name of this avant-garde group of artists was a derivative of the Hebrew word for prophets, a term that fell in line with the turn-of-the century fascination with mysticism.  The Nabis artists emulated Gauguin's vision of an aesthetic outside of the Western tradition and his radical example of stripping down art to the essentials of color, surface and form.  Many of these artists were also trained as printmakers, and the flat, graphic quality of that medium is expertly employed in this colorful oil from around 1892.

Japanese prints, particularly those from the Edo period, were of great influence to Bonnard, and Le corsage à carreaux puts many of the aesthetic principles of the Asian art form into practice.   Eliminating perspective and gradation, Bonnard constructs his composition using blocks of color patterns to achieve a vivid patchwork of form. 

Another version of this work (Dauberville no. 36, fig. 1) is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

This work has been requested for the forthcoming Bonnard exhibition at the Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal to be held from September 12, 2010 through January 30, 2011.