Pierre Bonnard

Galerie Maeght, Paris

Philippe Leclerq

Private Collection

Richard Feigen, New York

Acquired from the above

Ghent, 1950

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Bonnard, 1966-67, no.130, illustrated

Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Pierre Bonnard, centenaire de sa naissance, 1967, no. 150, illustrated

Geneva, Galerie Motte, Bonnard, 1969, no.27, illustrated p. 20

Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Bonnard dans sa lumière, 1975, p.119, no. 71, illustrated pl.104

Marcq-en-Baroel, Fondation Anne et Albert Prouvost, Bonnard, 1978, no. 42, illustrated

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Pierre Bonnard, 1995, illustrated pl. 49

Nice, Musée Matisse, Matisse - Bonnard: une amitié, 1996

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pierre Bonnard, The Late Still Lifes and Interiors, 2009, illustrated in color in the catalogue p. 151

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1974, vol. IV, no. 1656, illustrated p. 79

Jean Clair, Bonnard, Paris, 1975, illustrated

Michel Terrasse, Bonnard et Le Cannet, Paris, 1987,  illustrated in color pl. 63

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under UV. This work is in excellent original condition.
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.
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Bonnard's luxuriant still lifes, created in his home overlooking the Mediterranean, capture all of the light, color and splendor of the south of France.  The present composition, which is believed to be one of the artist's last great paintings, depicts a bouquet of mimosas, picked from the artist's garden.  Painted around 1945, the composition here is daringly abstract and calls to mind the canvases of the Abstract Expressionists, whose color-field paintings would make their debut in the United States a decade later.   Similar to the transcendental oil compositions of Mark Rothko (fig. 1), Bonnard's canvas is saturated with color,  the individual elements and tones blending into a harmonious and unified vision.

In the recent exhibition catalogue of Bonnard's still lifes, Dita Amory has written the following on this picture: "If the light in Bonnard's late paintings often seems to transform color, and what color describes, into brilliant tapestries of mottled hues, this painting of a vase of mimosas, one of the artist's last still lifes, is an epiphany of light's full potential.  The warm yellows and burning orange brushstrokes build a surface that pulsates with energy.  The flowers of the mimosa tree in Bonnard's garden at Le Bosquet often found their way into the late interiors" (Dita Amory, Pierre Bonnard, The Late Still Lifes and Interiors, op cit., p. 150).