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Lot Essay
During Bonnard's first trip to the Midi in 1910, the southern landscape inspired and attracted him so much that he subsequently returned there every year. Eventually he purchased a house called "Le Bosquet", situated on top of a hill affording enchanting views of the red roods of Le Cannet, Cannes and the sea beyond. Having settled there, he took great pleasure in painting the area's gentle layers of landscape, nestling in the hillsides with their rich and deep colors. He painted numerous landscapes of the area portraying the sensations of nature's rich and glowing colors. During the 1920s he drew constantly because he was concerned that the temptations of color would dominate compositional criteria. By the 1930s, the compositions of his landscape pictures became structured but simplified and the colors became even brighter while he remained faithful to his sensation of nature.
Felix Fénéon, who once spent time with the painter in the south, described how he had watched Bonnard work on his landscape paintings. "With four thumb-tacks he had pinned a canvas, lightly tinted with Ocher, to the dining-room wall. During the first few days he would glance from time to time, as he painted, at a sketch on a piece of paper twice the size of one's hand, on which he had made notes in oil, pencil and ink of the dominant colors of each little section of the motif. At first I could not identify the subject. Did I have before me a landscape or a seascape? On the eighth day, I was astonished to be able to recognize a landscape. From that time on Bonnard no longer referred to his sketch. He would step back to judge the effect of the juxtaposed tones; occasionally he would place a dab of color with his finger, then another next to the first. On about the fifteenth day, I asked him how long he thought it would take him to finish his landscape. Bonnard replied: "I finish [sic.] it this morning"" (J. Rewald, Pierre-Bonnard, New York, 1948, p. 51).
Felix Fénéon, who once spent time with the painter in the south, described how he had watched Bonnard work on his landscape paintings. "With four thumb-tacks he had pinned a canvas, lightly tinted with Ocher, to the dining-room wall. During the first few days he would glance from time to time, as he painted, at a sketch on a piece of paper twice the size of one's hand, on which he had made notes in oil, pencil and ink of the dominant colors of each little section of the motif. At first I could not identify the subject. Did I have before me a landscape or a seascape? On the eighth day, I was astonished to be able to recognize a landscape. From that time on Bonnard no longer referred to his sketch. He would step back to judge the effect of the juxtaposed tones; occasionally he would place a dab of color with his finger, then another next to the first. On about the fifteenth day, I asked him how long he thought it would take him to finish his landscape. Bonnard replied: "I finish [sic.] it this morning"" (J. Rewald, Pierre-Bonnard, New York, 1948, p. 51).