Art History Lesson: Pierre Bonnard

I spent the President's Day weekend in Washington, DC. I saw the Pierre Bonnard painting on the left in a small show of high lights from the National Gallery's collection, "Small French Paintings." You could say that the subject of this work makes it the Frenchiest of all the works in the exhibition; it was definitely one of the best. This is a great painting for a number of reasons.

This type of oblique perspective draws you into the painting immediately. It makes you feel as if have just thrown open your shutters to hang out of your third story window and join in the festivities.
The color in this work is also magnificent. The washed-out street and sidewalk force all the brightly colored objects forward. It is hard to see at this scale (and through a computer screen) but every color is a solid, flat, confident plane. The orange-red of the flags on the right is the most saturated color in the painting and positively glows in person.

The technique is very reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautrec; this may be why I am so fond of this painting. Strong pencil lines show between planes of color (see between the street and sidewalk) and on the whole this painting is so modern I am not sure if it is finished at all. Perhaps it is just an advanced under painting; I must confess I don't know much about Bonnard. Other works by this artist have a lot more color- swirliness (a techinical term) rather than these flat bold shapes and support this hypothesis. In any case, the creator is long dead. It is now displayed on a wall in a fancy museum and thus available for me to criticize and adore regardless of painterly intention.
(Pierre Bonnard, Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day, 1890, oil on canvas,)