Pierre Bonnard

Original Prints: Lithographs

A major figure of the Nabis movement, Pierre Bonnard (1867 - 1947) first gained fame for his lithographs and posters in the early 1890s, serving as inspiration for Toulouse-Lautrec, among others.

Far from academic considerations, and drawing on the clarity of Japanese prints (whence his nickname "Bonnard le Japonard"), his graphic style was spare and casual, characterised by bold design layouts, using refined tonal values and textures to evoke the bustle of urban life or the warm intimacy of an interior.

Parallèlement Roger-Marx 94; Bouvet 73 109 colour lithographs in rose-sanguine, 1900, the only known states, a unbound proof copy of the work, with several of the rare bistre-coloured variants (as shown here). Bonnard's lithographs for Ambroise Vollard's edition of Verlaine's Parallèlement were to revolutionize the art of the illustrated book.

Femme debout dans sa Baignoire Woman standing in her Bath Roger-Marx 81; Bouvet 94 lithograph, 1925, the rare 2nd state (of 4), one of only five proofs before the edition In the early 1920s, living at Le Cannet in the south of France, Bonnard executed several lithographs for the publisher Edmond Frapier, of which this nude figure is exemplary.         next artist  >