The Artist's Studio

1900

Pierre Bonnard

Painter, French, 1867 - 1947

We face a wall lined with furniture to either side of a tall window that looks out onto buildings in this almost square painting. The scene is painted with blended and broad strokes, which makes our view a little blurry so many details are indistinct. The walls are tan with a thin, dark blue line above a wide band of lighter blue along the bottom of the wall. The window is in the center of the wall opposite us. A teal-blue curtain hangs along its right, and sheer, artic-blue drapes are parted and fastened to the wall on each side. The view out the window shows a few brightly lit, pale blue and yellow buildings with gray roofs. Under the window, a light wood table is scattered with objects, difficult to identify, and one pale turquoise square that could be a painting. More objects are cluttered on the dark wood bureau to our left and a round table closer to us, which is cut off by the bottom edge of the canvas. A delicate straw-colored easel holding a small canvas stands just beyond the round table. A girl sits in the lower right corner of the composition, and she is cropped by the right and bottom edges. Her skin is pale and tinged with smoky blue. She wears a wreath in her hair, presumably of flowers, and her long dress and the bed or chair on which she sits blend together in tones of navy, spruce blue, and forest green. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “1900 Bonnard.”
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On View

East Building Ground Level, Gallery 103-C


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 61.5 x 74.8 cm (24 3/16 x 29 7/16 in.)
    overall (with wood strips and cradle): 62.7 x 76 x 1.8 cm (24 11/16 x 29 15/16 x 11/16 in.)
    framed: 66 x 78.7 x 3.8 cm (26 x 31 x 1 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    2004.110.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection, New York, in 1957. purchased by Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966;[1] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2004.
[1] The painting was lent to a 1966 exhibition of the Mellon collection at the NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Celebration 1941-1966, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 159, repro.

2013

  • Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016, pl. 64.

Bibliography

1966

  • Dauberville, Jean, and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint. 4 vols. Paris, 1966-1974: no. 244, repro., as Atelier.

Inscriptions

lower left: 1900 / Bonnard

Wikidata ID

Q20190667


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