Pierre Bonnard Biography

Pierre Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, Hauts-de-Seine on 3rd October 1867 and was a French painter and print maker, as well as a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis. Bonnard preferred to work from memory, using drawings as a reference, and his paintings are often characterised by a dreamlike quality. The intimate domestic scenes, for which he is perhaps best known, often include his wife Marthe de Meligny. Bonnard has been described as "the most thoroughly idiosyncratic of all the great twentieth-century painters", and the unusual vantage points of his compositions rely less on traditional modes of pictorial structure than voluptuous colour, poetic allusions and visual wit. Identified as a late practitioner of Impressionism in the early 20th century, Bonnard has since been recognised for his unique use of colour and his complex imagery. He died on 23rd January 1947, aged 79 in La Route de Serra Capeou, Le Cannet, Riviera, France. Bonnard's record price in a public sale was for "Terrasse à Vernon", sold by Christie's in 2011 for £7,014,200 (€8,485,287).

Artist's Statement

... one of Bonnard's quotes: "What attracted me was less art itself than the artist’s life and all that it meant for me: the idea of creativity and freedom of expression and action. I had been attracted to painting and drawing for a long time, but it was not an irresistible passion; what I wanted, at all costs, was to escape the monotony of life."