Bonnard in Orsay

March in Paris!

We are in March in Paris,outside the sky is grey but why don’t you follow the Little Art Seeker in Orsay and visit the gorgeous exhibition devoted to the painter Pierre Bonnard!

The little Art Seeker invites you to discover it!!!

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)was born after Impressionism and his models were Gauguin and the Japanese prints which in fell in love with during the spring of 1890 after having seen an exhibition at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

His paintings around the 189O’s will be totally inspired by the Japanese art.As his eldest before him:Monet ,Gauguin,Van Gogh ,he will take inspiration in this very delicate art!!!

With a few friends:Maurice Denis,Edouard Vuillard,Paul Sérusier ,Paul Ranson he will create a group called “The Nabis”the prophets in Hebrew.Their art was avant-gardiste and was a decorative art .With no perspective but decorative motifs in lines and arabesques!!!

Pierre Bonnard has chosen his subjects in his private life and represents members of his family:brother in law,nephews,sister on huge canvases where they are represented with a kind of idyllic version of the garden of Eden amidst luxuriant gardens!These pannels are decorative ones and were destined to embellish the bourgeois apartments of his rich patrons!

Bonnard’s world is peopled with cats and little dogs ,featured with grace and poetry.

One day ,Bonnard meets the woman of his life.Her name is Marthe and he wants to spend his life with her.He marries her in August 1925 and she will become her favorite model.

He will portray her endlessly :Marthe in her dressing room,Marthe in her gaden ,Marthe in her bathtub.

Marthe represents the ideal feminine beauty and Bonnard with magnify her body by the use of vibrant colors and light!

For her ,in August 1912 the painter buys a small house along the Seine in a place called Vernonet.He calls it “Ma Roulotte”(my caravan) and pays visit to Monet is neighbour who has settled in Giverny a village not very far from his own.

Bonnet will represent the place in many of his paintings :the garden , the view from the balcony on the froont of his house or from his studio.

But in Normandy it’s always raining and Pierre is searching for the dazzling sun of the mediterranean!Once more he buys a little house with a vista over the bay and Marthe is the queen of the place.The colors of his paintings are bright and shiny as the yellow of the sun and the different shades of blue of the sea!!!

In the south of France ,Bonnard has recreated a kind of Arcadia ,a paradise for the painters inspired by Antiquity .In this landscape he goes back to Antiquity and imagine shepherds and nymphs magnified by the blue of the Mediterranean.

But his love for Marthe ,doesn’t make him forget his friends and rich patrons!!One of his main patron is called Misia Siert .She’s a very rich and beautiful woman very much interested in Art and Bonnard remains one of her favorite artist!!

For her he will realize huge murals for her Parisian flat and the painter will also accomplish several portraits of his muse and favorite sponsor!!

Misia is married to a wealthy man and Bonnard won’t hesitate to make direct allusions to her husband’s infedility in some of the murals she commissioned him.

During all his lifetime he will also realize funny self portraits :Bonnard as a Japanese man, Bonnard as a boxer

Bonnard as a young man ,Bonnard smoking his pipe!!!

But he will remain above all the painter of color and intimacy.So if you visit Paris in Spring,follow the little Art seeker’s advice and visit this gorgeous exhibition to discover the poetic universe of this talented painter!!