Pierre Bonnard, Landscape at Le Cannet, 1928, oil on canvas
The Kimbell Art Museum announced today the acquisition of a major painting by Pierre Bonnard, Landscape at Le Cannet, the first work by Bonnard to enter the Museum’s collection. Perhaps most well-known for his paintings of his wife, Marthe, in the bath, Bonnard began painting more and more landscapes later in his career.
According to theartstory.com:
Pierre Bonnard was a member of the Symbolist group of painters known as Les Nabis (“prophets” or “seers”), and so subscribed to the Nabi doctrine of abandoning three-dimensional modeling in favor of flat color areas. However, although Bonnard was a member of this group, he was not interested in obscure Symbolist subject matter and was not a mystic. Instead, he was satisfied – even fascinated and delighted by – the scenes of simple daily life around him. Because of this, he has been called an “intimist.”
Édouard Vuillard, Les quatre anabaptistes, 1930-1935
The painting is first recorded hanging on the wall in Bonnard’s Paris apartment in 1930. His friend and fellow intimist Édouard Vuillard painted a portrait there of Bonnard’s city studio, showing the artist looking intently at Landscape at Le Cannet.
Landscape at Le Cannetis on view tomorrow, Friday, August 31, in the Kimbell’s Louis I. Kahn Building. Admission to view the Museum’s collection is always free.
