Provenance

Bonnard-Terrasse family

Explore Selected Works

Pierre Bonnard, The Green Table, c. 1910, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.7

The Green Table

Pierre Bonnard · c. 1910 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.7

Profusions of lemon yellow and lime green represent bushes and trees against a vivid blue sky in this nearly square, loosely painted landscape. The lower left quadrant of the canvas is filled with a shrub painted with bright and warm yellow. A spring-green tree rises the height of the composition to the right, taking up that quarter of the canvas. Three steps between the two are painted buttercup yellow on the risers and lilac purple on the treads. A copper-orange and brick-red rectangular area above this could be a patch of dirt under a ribbon of green, presumably grass. A tree with a canary-yellow and shamrock-green canopy is just to left of center in the distance and is flanked by smaller trees painted with violet and marigold orange. The branch of a tree mostly out of view dips into the scene in the top left corner against the ultramarine-blue sky. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner, “Bonnard.”
Pierre Bonnard, Stairs in the Artist's Garden, 1942/1944, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.11

Stairs in the Artist's Garden

Pierre Bonnard · 1942/1944 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.11

A chair and a table set with a bottle, fruit, and dishes sit on a grassy lawn under a tall tree in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with vibrantly colored, visible brushstrokes, creating the impression of dappled sunlight filtering through the tree’s canopy. Situated near the lower right corner, the table takes up most of the bottom half of the composition. Its wooden legs are cut off by the bottom edge of the painting. The tablecloth is cream white where it hangs off the sides, and turns ice blue in the shade, on the tabletop. Carnation-pink bands make a loose, plaid-like pattern. The table is set with a tall, sea-green bottle, round fruit in shades of amber brown and turquoise, and two teacups – one cobalt blue and the other cranberry red. Other loosely painted forms could be more dishes or foodstuff. One cane-backed, rust-red chair sits at the far end of the table. The lawn under and around the table is painted with strokes of pale pink, sky blue, and shamrock green. To our right, beyond the table, the sage-green tree trunk grows up and off the top edge of the painting. The upper half of the composition, from the bottom right corner to the top left, is filled with loosely painted, zigzagging strokes of moss, sage, lemon-lime, and pine-green strokes. The artist’s name appears in olive-green letters in the lower right corner, “Bonnard.”
Pierre Bonnard, Table Set in a Garden, c. 1908, oil on paper on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.8

Table Set in a Garden

Pierre Bonnard · c. 1908 · oil on paper on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.8

A horizontally oriented landscape with a bridge over a body of water, a grassy lawn, and trees is loosely painted mostly in shades of lemon yellow, spring and forest green, and sky blue. Brushstrokes are broad and blended throughout so details are often difficult to make out or take time to interpret. We look across the landscape from an elevated position, and the horizon nearly reaches the top of the canvas. In the lower left corner, a bridge painted with smoky, pale purple curves gently over a body of water. The lawn stretches to the right, where it meets what might be a fence or screen painted with pale green, rust brown, magenta pink, and yellow angling in from the lower right corner. Just beyond the rise, a person wearing a blue shirt carries a stick over one shoulder, perhaps a fishing pole. Beyond this, trees are covered with wispy, cottony canopies. The lawn continues to the left, where a second person walks toward us. Both people appear to have pale, peachy skin. Continuing into the distance, the impression of a tree-covered, shallow valley is painted with rounded, blended forms in leaf green, icy blue, and aquamarine under a periwinkle-blue sky. The artist signed the lower left corner, “Bonnard.”
Pierre Bonnard, A Spring Landscape, c. 1935, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.10

A Spring Landscape

Pierre Bonnard · c. 1935 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.10