Study for "Gamme majeure" (Major Scale)

1891/1893

Pierre Bonnard

Associated Names
Pierre Bonnard

Artist, French, 1867 - 1947

This is a painting depicting stylized illustrations related to musical scales. The image is divided into sections with text and graphics explaining musical concepts such as scales, whole tones, and semitones, using visual diagrams and handwritten text. The top portion includes a sequence of cartoonish figures of varying sizes, arranged on a staircase of lines, accompanied by French text. There are floral patterns along the borders and more text sections throughout, with part of the text surrounded by additional figures representing different notes or intervals. This is in the style of a whimsical, educational illustration.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    brush and pen and black ink with green watercolor over graphite

  • Credit Line

    Purchased for the Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 20.6 x 28.3 cm (8 1/8 x 11 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2014.83.1

  • Volume Title

    Petit Solfège illustré (Little Illustrated Solfeggio)

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Pieter Dietsch, New York; by descent; (Artemis Fine Arts, London); Ira and Virginia Jackson, Houston; (Hartle Properties, Inc., Houston); purchased by NGA in 2014

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2000

  • Prints Abound: Paris in the 1890s, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001, 72, 169, no. 110 (color).

Inscriptions

upper left in pen and black ink: 8e; upper right in pen and black ink: 8; across top in pen and black ink: CHAPITRE II _ / ECHELLE - GAMME - TONS - DEMI-TONS; center in pen and black ink: Qu'est-ce que la gamme / C'est une portion ... [text continues for 13 lines]; lower right in graphite: 48

Wikidata ID

Q64619567

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