Pierre Bonnard, Poster for "La Revue blanche," 1894
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IMAGE LIST | ACTIVITIES
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This poster advertises La Revue blanche, an important forum for symbolist artists and writers. The title refers to white light, which is composed of all the colors of the spectrum. In a similar way, the review wanted to bring together the entire scope of artistic and literary endeavor. Its pages were "open to all ideas, all schools." It published literary contributions by Marcel Proust, André Gide, and Henrik Ibsen, and illustrations by Edouard Vuillard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Gauguin. The flamboyant wife of one of the brothers who edited the review (friends of Bonnard's) was, in all probability, the model for the vamp who looks out from this poster.
Her face half hidden in the voluminous ruffles of a cape, she beckons viewers with her eyes. Behind her, a man -- just readable -- pauses before a wall plastered with placards. His top hat, split by a highlight, looks at first like the ears of a bat. It has been suggested that these dark forms, almost without interior definition, were influenced by shadow plays Bonnard saw performed at a cabaret. Their contrast to the chattering repetition of the background tends to flatten space in the manner of Japanese prints. Bonnard, once described as "très japonard," was particularly influenced by the flat planes, asymmetrical compositions, and decorative patterns of Japanese prints.
On the poster's right, a rude newsboy hooks his thumb toward the lettering. His expression and Bonnard's playful treatment of the title give the poster a touch of humor. Notice how the letters are integrated in the scene: an 'l' seems to hang like a parasol from the woman's arm, while the 'a' wraps around her leg.
Although a poster for champagne was Bonnard's first real success -- and persuaded his family that he could abandon law in favor of a career as an artist -- he made relatively few posters. His lithographs, however, were influential for other artists, particularly Toulouse-Lautrec.
Learning Activities
Art
• Discuss what factors influence our perception of space in a flat print or painting. What types of shapes, pattern, or colors tend to flatten space?
• Research the influence of Japanese prints on impressionism.
Humanities
• Read and discuss selections by authors published in La Revue blanche.
• Create your own literary magazine.
| The Nabis Bonnard was a member of the Nabis, a group of artists that included Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and others. Formed at the end of 1888 as a kind of spiritual brotherhood, the Nabis took the name from the Hebrew word for "prophet." Sometimes they donned robes, and their meetings veered toward mysticism and ritual. Like Gauguin, who was their greatest inspiration, the Nabis were not interested in appearance but in emotion and power lurking below the surface of things. They made no distinction between painting and other forms of expression, always striving to capture, as Stéphane Mallarmé said of poetry, "not the object, but the effect it produces." |