Pierre Bonnard

(Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, 1867 - 1947, Le Cannet, France)

Europe, French

Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker best known for his intimate interiors, nude studies, and views of sunlit gardens. His paintings, which are in major museum collections throughout the world, are distinguished by the artist’s use of colors that are close in value and applied in small brushstrokes. After initially studying law, Bonnard attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts and then the Académie Julian in Paris. He became a founding member of the Nabis, post-Impressionist artists who admired the paintings of Gauguin, were influenced by Japanese woodcut prints and sought to integrate art more fully with everyday life. The Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris hosted Bonnard’s first one-person exhibition in 1896 and his work continues to be featured in major museum exhibitions, recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Bonnard: The Late Interiors, 2009). Bonnard , who first gained recognition as an illustrator and lithographer, also created theater programs, book and journal illustrations, posters and fine prints over the course of his career.

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