Bonnard and the Nabis. Albert Kostenevitch

de Paris that painting should be predominantly decorative, that the disposition of lines revealed true talent. Three or four years later he began to move away from intricate decorative effects and deliberate complexity towards a greater liberation of colour and a living texture in painting, as well as towards its inner integrity. This was a turning point in his career, but it did not occur suddenly. Changes in Bonnard’s painterly manner accumulated gradually, and for this reason it is impossible to draw a dividing line between one period and another. But changes did take place. When looking at a picture executed in the new manner, one cannot help feeling that it is not so much a different picture as the earlier one transformed, but that the newer picture represents a deeper understanding of what the artist was doing before. While developing his talent, Bonnard at the same time remained true to himself. Bonnard’s invariable loyalty to himself and to his views on life is always expressed in his art. Throughout the sixty years of his career he remained true to the subjects of his youth, but none of his works is mere dreary repetition. His artistic individuality is easily recognizable in each new work.

      Bonnard’s intonations often have humorous overtones. Benois saw this as the source of the superficiality for which he reproached the artist.[9] There might have been an element of truth in this, if Bonnard’s humour were present in all circumstances. But he used humour only when he wanted to avoid the direct expression of emotions. In a way, his special form of tact was akin to that of Chekhov. Though there was never any personal contact between these two men, they had much in common. Bonnard always added a touch of humour when he depicted children. The ploy reliably protected him against the excessive sentimentality often observed in this genre.

      Pierre Bonnard, The Terrasse Family (L’après-midi bourgeoise), 1900. Oil on canvas, 139 × 212 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

      Bonnard had no children of his own. For many years he led a bachelor’s life. This seemed not to worry him in the least. If, however, one looks at his works as a kind of diary, a rather different picture emerges. In the 1890s-1900s he often depicted scenes of quiet domestic bliss. These scenes – the feeding of a baby, children bathing, playing or going for walks, a corner of a garden, a cosy interior – are both poignant and amusing. Of course, these aspects of life attracted the other Nabis, too, which was in keeping with the times. But in Bonnard’s work these motifs are not treated with stressed indifference, as in Vallotton’s. Bonnard does not conceal the fact that he finds them attractive. Yet it is not easy to discern a longing for family life in his work. One might suggest it but without much confidence. Bonnard seems to remind himself, as always with humour, that family life is undoubtedly emotionally pleasant, but there is much in it that is monotonous and even absurd – a truly Chekhovian attitude. The many commonplace situations treated on account of banality with a degree of humour are summed up in the monumental portrait of the Terrasse family, a work unprecedented in European art. Bonnard gave the picture the title The Terrasse Family (L’Après-midi bourgeoise). It was painted in 1900 and is now in the Bernheim-Jeune collection in Paris (another version is in the Stuttgart State Gallery). The title parodies Mallarmé’s eclogue L’Après-midi d’un faune. The artist had affection for his characters and not only because they were his relatives (Bonnard’s sister Andrée was married to the composer Claude Terrasse). Yet he depicted the dozen or so of them in an ironical parade of provincial idleness, in all its grandeur and its absurdity.

      Pierre Bonnard, The Red Garters, c. 1905. Oil on canvas, 61 × 50 cm, Private Collection.

      Pierre Bonnard, Indolence, c. 1899. Oil on canvas, 92 × 108 cm, Private collection.

      Pierre Bonnard, The Siesta, 1900. Oil on canvas, 109 × 132 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

      Pierre Bonnard, Nude with Black Stockings, c. 1900. Oil on panel, 59 × 43 cm, Private Collection, on loan to City of Sheffield Art Galleries.

      Around the same time Bonnard painted his Man and Woman (1900, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), a work with a psychological dramatism quite unexpected for the artist. The psychological aspect of the work is not a piece of fiction or illustration of the then fashionable subject of the conflict between the sexes; it is a self-portrait of the artist with Marthe, his constant companion and model, in every respect a deeply personal work. Of course, this painting is not typical of Bonnard: there is no irony here; we are witnessing a dramatic episode easily identified as biographical. Both this work and the portrait of the Terrasse family are worthy of attention, because they show Bonnard not only as a subtle painter but also as a very complex personality. Meeting Marthe brought many changes to Bonnard’s life. This girl, who had come to Paris in search of work and a new life, did not belong to the same social milieu as Bonnard, and in comparison with him and his friends she was practically uneducated. Yet she became the artist’s muse. In her Bonnard found an inexhaustible source of inspiration. She did not sit specially for him, and “there was no need for this because she was constantly with him. Her movements flowed out of one another with a naturalness that can be neither learnt nor forgotten. Some of Bonnard’s most brilliant pictures were prompted by some pose of her body which he had noticed.”[10] The presence of Marthe, the mistress of the house, is unexpectedly revealed in Mirror in the Dressing-Room, now in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. In the mirror we can see the reflection of a small room in which Marthe is drinking coffee, completely ignoring the model who is in the act of removing her clothes. They say that it was Bonnard’s wife who compelled him to lead a secluded life, striving by one means or another to keep him away from his friends and from Paris. With the years she indeed became an intolerable person. But there is no evidence that Bonnard ever complained or expressed dissatisfaction. He was a patient man, and his love was a wise one. Perhaps he lacked firmness of character. “He was always afraid of her, her tactless behaviour,” Matisse recalled. “She tried to cut him off from everyone. True, she received me, saying, ‘Oh, Matisse is only concerned with his painting.’ I suppose she thought I wasn’t dangerous.”[11] Bonnard’s friends were definitely convinced that he was under Marthe’s thumb. But in actual fact he submitted himself to the imperatives of his art and Marthe never infringed upon them. He found it convenient to live in rural solitude and devote all his time to his work. After the First World War, if he visited Paris at all, he never spent more than two months in any year in the capital. “I go there to see what’s happening, to compare my painting with that of other artists. In Paris I am a critic, I can’t work there. There is too much noise, too many distractions. I know that other artists become accustomed to that kind of life. I find it difficult.”[12] Bonnard had indeed changed; he seemed to have forgotten what fascination the rush and bustle of Paris had once held for him. Bonnard visited many foreign countries, but his travels left no noticeable traces in his art, which had grown on French soil, in a French atmosphere. Paris and the Ile-de-France, Normandy, the Dauphiné, and the Côte d’Azur were places where Bonnard worked. In summer he usually went to some little town or village in one of these French provinces. He was particularly fond of Vernon and Le Cannet. Bonnard was an artist of unusual integrity. A scholar attempting to divide his work into periods would find himself faced with a formidable task. His early works are marked by a deliberate decorativeness, while towards the close of his life his paintings become more expressive; at times this expressiveness is accompanied by dramatic overtones. However, it is impossible to establish a point when one tendency exhausted itself and another became a dominant feature of his art. One is forced inevitably to the conclusion that the whole of Bonnard’s enormous legacy constitutes a single period.[13] The works painted between 1888 and 1890, about 15 in all (earlier works have not come down to us), already clearly indicate which genres the artist preferred: landscapes, still lifes and portraits. They also include his panel The Dressing Gown (1889, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which is as decorative as a textile, and spontaneous, lively compositions containing human figures –

9

A. Benois, op. cit., p. 154

10

Th. Natanson, op. cit., p. 24

11

H. Matisse, Ecrits et propos sur l’art, Paris, 972, p. 304

12

Letter to Pierre Courthion (P Courthion, Impromptus – Pierre Bonnard, in: Les Nouvelles Littéraires, 24 June. 1933)

13

See J. and H. Dauberville, Bonnards. Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint, Paris, 1965–74, vols I-4; F. Bouvet, Bonnard. L’Œuvre grave, Paris, 1981; C. Roger-Marx, Bonnard lithographe, Monte-Carlo, 1952