Pierre Bonnard

Private Collection, Paris (acquired by circa 1900)
Private Collection, France (by descent from the above and sold: Christie's, New York, November 4, 2003, lot 12)
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947, 1995, no. 6, illustrated in the catalogue

François-Joachim Beer, Bonnard, Marseilles, 1947, illustrated in color pl. 5
François-Joachim Beer, "Evocation de Pierre Bonnard" in Art de France, no. 11, 1947, illustrated in color p. 21 (titled La Parisienne)
Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1906-1919, vol. II, Paris, 1968, no. 173, illustrated p. 199

Work is in very good condition. Canvas has been lined. Under uv light, there are some small strokes of inpainting around the extreme perimeter of the composition, likely to address abrasion from a prior framing. The varnish fluoresces unevenly.
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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Painted in 1898, Jeune fille dans la rue explores two themes central to Bonnard's oeuvre: the intimate moments of everyday life and portraiture. Additionally, it marks the moment during Bonnard’s involvement with Les Nabis, a group of artists and close friends who explored a subjective art that was deeply rooted in the soul of the artist. For Bonnard, his artistic soul was an extension of his perception, painting from memory rather than life. Through his practice, he would not simply capture the object, but also its essence. By the time he was done with a painting, the freshness of a scene would have long passed and transformed into a hazy memory.

In Jeune fille dans la rue, Bonnard captures what one sees in a mere flash along the street: a view of beautifully dressed young woman walking against a cacophonous background of carriages, people and the bustle of a city. The young girl’s distant gaze is oblique, forcing the viewer to not only study her closely, but to create a narrative around her.

It is this characteristic of his practice that caused Gustave Geffroy to claim, “No one better captures the look of the street, the colored patch seen through the Parisian mist, the passing silhouettes, a young girl’s frail grace. A searching hand moving with simian pliancy seizes the passing gesture, the evanescent face of the street, born and vanished in an instant. It is the poetry of life that is gone, a remembrance of things, of animals, of human beings” (quoted in André Fermigier, Pierre Bonnard, New York, 1984, p. 29; see fig. 1).

In order to achieve this feeling of ephemerality and immediacy in his painting, Bonnard looked to photography for inspiration. He foreshortened, cropped, and lit the sitter in a way that pushes her to the foreground, capturing a snapshot of the moment. For the artist, “the foreground…gives a concept of the world as seen through the human eyes, of a world of undulations, convex or concave” (quoted in Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors (exhibition catalogue), New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, p. 12). In this way, Jeune fille dans la rue exemplifies Bonnard’s experimental interest in space and search for a spatial link between the realms of canvas, subjective perception, and objective reality.