Pierre Bonnard

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 14th March 1934, lot 41
Jacques Boussard, France
Sale: Drouot Montaigne, Paris, 24th November 1990, lot 70
Private Collection, France (purchased at the above sale. Sold: Christie's, London, 20th June 2006, lot 121)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Pierre Bonnard, 1949
Venice, XXV Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, 1950
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Franse meesters uit het Petit Palais, 1952-53
Paris, Maison de la Pensée Française, Pierre Bonnard, 1955, no. 18 (as dating from 1909)

'Bonnard. L'Eternel printemps', in France illustration, 14th May 1949, no. 187, illustrated in colour
Thadée Natanson, Le Bonnard que je propose, Geneva, 1951, no. 45, illustrated in colour on the title page and opposite p. 48
Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris, 1968, vol. II, no. 861, illustrated p. 377

The canvas is lined. There is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. This work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The subject of this lush, colourful oil is the landscape at Vernon, on the right bank of the river Seine. Bonnard moved to the village of Vernonnet, near Vernon, in 1912, and lived in a small house known as 'Ma Roulotte' until the late 1920s. Vernonnet is situated only a few kilometres west of Giverny, where Monet had lived and worked for nearly thirty years, and the two men became close friends. Unlike Monet, who painted his carefully planned garden, Bonnard was fascinated with the wild nature around the river Seine, and the wild flowers, shrubs and trees in his overgrown garden. He painted a number of views from the large balcony of 'Ma Roulotte', and often ventured down the river where he painted the poplars and willows that lined its banks.

 

Jardin à Vernon reflects the artist's fascination with the lush nature of the region, which he transformed into a rich, yet carefully developed composition. The wild trees on the river bank act as a window that reveals the water and the nature beyond it, all rendered in a saturated palette. As James Elliott observed: 'Bonnard was essentially a colorist. He devoted his main creative energies to wedding his sensations of color from nature to those from paint itself – sensations which he said thrilled and even bewildered him. Perceiving color with a highly developed sensitivity, he discovered new and unfamiliar effects from which he selected carefully, yet broadly and audaciously. [...] Whether in narrow range or multitudinous variety, the colors move across the surface of his paintings in constantly shifting interplay, lending an extraordinary fascination to common subjects. Familiar sights – the pervading greenness of a landscape, the intensification of color in objects on a lightly overcast day – are given vivid life' (J. Elliott, in Bonnard and His Environment (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1964, p. 25).