The transformed world of Pierre Bonnar

Pierre Bonnar (1867–1947) lived a long and prosperous life. He grew up in a wealthy family, received an excellent education and, already bringing a professional oath of a lawyer, finally realized himself as an artist.

Like Eduar Vuir, with whom he was closely friendly, Bonnar was formed in the circle of Nabi group, which was in the center of artistic life in Europe (see my essay on E. Wuyar, the Furs' Foreign Association No. 159 [1]).

Let me remind you that Nabi attached special importance to the artistic understanding and the aesthetic quality of objects of everyday life, whether it be a poster, a book cover, fabric or theatrical decoration. Then we will not be surprised that Bonnar's fame began with a champagne advertising on a poster. On this occasion Felix Feneon, future editor -in -chief of LA magazine Revue Blanche , wrote that for the first time after Daor on the walls of Parisian houses, real lithography flashed, thereby reviving this art.

Pierre Bonnar. Self -portrait (about 1889)

Bonnar worked a lot in a book illustration, including for LA Revue Blanche , his graphics discovers the undoubted influence of the Japanese engraving, which conquered Europe then. In the late 1890s, as he later wrote, Bonnar realized what exactly he was looking for-he realized himself before with all the painter and switched to a large format of paintings.

Since the 1900s, Bonnar rented a house with a garden and a view of the surroundings in different parts of France-in Triville, Arkashon, Vernone ... Finally, in 1904, he discovered the south-with its special lighting and glowing colors. Bonnar wrote to his mother from the Saint-Tropez, where his friend Wuyar lived then: “I seemed to be the world of“ thousand and one night ”...”

Poster - advertising of French champagne

In 1922, Bonnar was fascinated by LE Cannet near Cannes; For some time he spent the winter there, taking off his next villa. Finally, in 1926, he bought a house called by him Le Bosquet, where he and his wife Martha will live the rest of his life. Michelle Terras, Bonnar’s grandson nephew, counted 283 of his paintings written in Le Bosquet. They allow us to see the interiors of this house and views, opening from its windows. Bonnar left a huge inheritance - paintings, decorative panels, engravings. I.A. Morozov and S.I. Schukin not only collected Bonnar's paintings, but also ordered him decorative panels for his mansions. Thanks to them, we have “our” Bonnar - in the Hermitage and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. However, in order to understand and love Bonnar, we must see many of his works of different years. Now the Internet provides us with this opportunity. It is known that Bonnar almost never wrote directly from nature. He even said that the presence of the model prevents him from working. Bonnar had his own method and his own technique of transferring what he saw on the canvas. For many years every morning the artist left the house with a notebook, and in the future it was these sketches that became the source of his canvases. So on Bonnar's canvases we always see a world, significantly transformed.

Bonnar wrote landscapes, interiors, naked nature. The permanent model of the artist was his wife Marta. Probably, more than a dozen canvases - this is Marta in the bath and at the bath, as much or more - Marta at the mirror; Here she dresses or undresses, with a sponge in her hand, with a dog, etc. Her silhouette has already become familiar, and then it becomes clear that in my favorite painting “Woman with a Dog” is not Martha, and not even a woman In general , and above all, a red sweater and a copper shade of hair.

The interiors of the mature Bonnar, like many of his still lifes, are built primarily in contrast. He writes a bright blue jug with flowers on an orange-red background; Mimosa in a green jug against the background of a bright brown wall.

If you look at Bonnar's canvases in a chronological order, it can be seen that the image is freed from the details: the color becomes tense and local, the forms are simplified to the hint.

In the interval between 1927 and 1947, Bonnar wrote about 60 canvases depicting a dining room in his house with a balcony window overlooking the garden. Quite quickly it becomes clear that the artist was worried about the comparison of the shades of the southern sky, the color of the tablecloth on the table and the color of the walls. Conditionally depict dishes and fruits on the table; The female figure in the corner against the wall is conditionally written; But Bezus is crazy the colors of the planes - the world is converted For the sake of something the main thing for the artist.

Actually, when we talk about the world of any artist, we somehow mean the transformed world. After all, Pasternak wrote:

I I'll get up V mine Mesonin ,
AND night V window Rama
Me Fill how Kuvshin ,
Water And flowers .

The world of Bonnar is exactly so arranged.

1. Http://trvsciense.ru/2014/07/29/ehduar-vyujar-posle-impresionizma