Some 100 works by French painter Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) are being exhibited by the Tate Gallery in London until May 17th 1998.
The retrospective held in London covers all the aspects of Bonnard's career and enables viewers to be acquainted with the virtuosity shown by this master in the use of colours. Intimacy was a constant theme for Bonnard who showed his model and wife Marthe in most of his paintings. Marthe in her bath, Marthe naked on her bed, Marthe sewing, Marthe drinking tea. Bonnard seemed obsessed by her and worked like a photographer taking pictures of his every day life.
Bonnard also painted Paris street scenes showing ordinary people, often women, strolling and seemingly happy. All his paintings give a clear view of his masterly use of chromatism and his ability to switch smoothly from one colour to another marrying contrasts with supreme talent.
Apparently inspired by Degas and Vuillard, Bonnard was above all a painter of atmospheres always eager to suggest a movement and apparently often uncertain about the desired effect of his works as if besieged by doubts.
Many extraordinary works thus seem unfinished presumably because Bonnard was thinking he could tell more in other paintings, presumably also because each day was different from the one that had preceded it and that his mood was then different. Overall, however, his works prove he was a great master with a delicate touch.
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