皮耶·博納爾

Estate of the artist

Private Collection, United States

Acquired from the above by the present owner

London, The Royal Academy of Arts, Pierre Bonnard, 1966, no. 249, illustrated in the catalogue (as dating from circa 1943)

Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, 1972, no. 28, illustrated in color in the catalogue

São Paulo, Museu de Art de São Paulo, Exposição Pierre Bonnard, 1972, no. 28, illustrated in the catalogue

Saint Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Bonnard dans sa lumière, 1975, no. 39

Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Hommage à Bonnard, 1986, no. 62

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint 1920-1939, Paris, 1973, vol. III, no. 1294, illustrated 242

The canvas is lined. Under UV, there is some tiny hairline retouching to the extreme edge at the top. There is a line of tiny losses, approximately an inch long, in the bottom-right quadrant, above the pink flowers and next to the green shrubbery. Another tinier, less noticeable loss appears in the lower-left quadrant. Overall the composition is fresh and stable and in very good 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

By the time he painted Paysage du Cannet, Bonnard was widely celebrated among the avant-garde, and his paintings were sought after by prominent collectors in America and Europe. In 1926, he bought the Villa du Bosquet above Le Cannet, where he remained for the rest of his life. Bonnard's new estate commanded a magnificent view over the bay of Cannes and the mountains of the Esterel. The lush surroundings and the dazzling light that reflected off the water inspired some of Bonnard's most monumental landscapes, including Paysage du Cannet. This large-scale composition depicts the grounds of the villa as seen from a higher point of elevation.

The landscapes that Bonnard painted in the late 1920s, including the present work and another composition of a similar view, marked a turning point in the artist's style. As Nicholas Watkins explains, "Bonnard's art was always very much based on reality, but a distinction can be made between his northern and southern landscapes:  whereas in the former he was more concerned with capturing the transient effects of weather, in the latter the permanence of atmosphere drew him into an alternative Mediterranean vision of a classical Golden Age. Cézanne and Renoir, rather than Monet, became his mentors in the south. The greens of his first terrace decoration at Vernonnet gave way to the pervasive golden light of his two main southern decorations of the 1920s, La Palme, 1926 and Paysage du Cannet, 1928" (N. Watkins, op. cit., p. 156).

Through his involvement with the Nabis at the beginning of the century, Bonnard had grown accustomed to using decorative stylistic elements in his paintings, such as flattened patches of color and bold contours. In his depictions of the southern French landscape, his use of this technique was extraordinarily effective in conveying the variations in the terrain. Watkins writes, "Bonnard was struck by the architectural nature of the vegetation in the south, suggesting a way of dealing with the view from Le Cannet in both paintings and drawings through poetic correspondences across the landscape....  Bonnard's solution to the problem of reconciling depth with the decorative assertion of the surface in the painting was to treat the landscape as a kind of tapestry into which the view was woven" (ibid., p. 156).