Saturday, May 16, 2015

Bonnard at the Musée d'Orsay

Yesterday John and I visited the Musée d'Orsay specifically to see the Pierre Bonnard retrospective.
Mr Bonnard has long been one of our favourite French artists. 
The exhibition begins with early works like Le Grand Jardin, 1895.
Bonnard was a master of erotic studies of the female form. Femme assoupie sur un lit, dit aussi L'indolente, 1899.
No one painted pets with such good humour, like this self-satisfied, stretching cat.
La Table, 1925.
A detail from above. We love Bonnard's mushy painting style and sunny Mediterranean colours.
Coin de salle à manger au Cannet, ca 1932.
Nu dans un intérieur, 1912-1914.
La Table de toilette, 1908.
La Toilette, also called Nu au miroir, also called Nu deviant la glace, 1931.
La Cheminee, also called Femme a sa toilette, 1916.
L'Homme et la femme, 1900.
Nu rose, tête ombrée, 1919
Baignoire, also called Le Bain, 1925
At one point Bonnard bought a box Kodak camera and reveled in photographing family, friends and fellow artists. This is his snap of artist, Jean-Édouard Vuillard .
L'après-midi bourgeoise, also called La Famille Terrasse, 1900.
Detail of the above. Another of those fabulous pets.
Paysage méridional: Le Cannet, 1928.
The exhibition ends with a collection of Bonnard's commissions for murals.
This one was acquired by the Musée d'Orsay in 1946. En barque, 1907.
It's a marvelous, inspiring show that we highly recommend if you visit Paris this spring/summer. This is me at the shop counter with his handful of postcards.

3 comments:

  1. So great you were allowed to take photos! Beautiful paintings.

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  2. Indeed, Shelley. In fact they marked individual paintings if they were not allowed to be photographed. A very reasonable approach.
    Bill

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  3. Love the colours in Bonnard's paintings.

    D.R.

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