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PROPERTY OF AN EAST COAST FAMILY
Lot 25A
PIERRE BONNARD(1867-1947)Jeunes femmes au jardin
Amended
20 November 2024, 17:00 EST
New YorkUS$200,000 - US$300,000
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PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947)
Jeunes femmes au jardin
stamped 'Bonnard' (upper left)
oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 40 3/4 in (92 x 103.5 cm)
Painted in 1918
stamped 'Bonnard' (upper left)
oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 40 3/4 in (92 x 103.5 cm)
Painted in 1918
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist's estate.
Genia Zadok Collection, New York, by 1968; her Estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, November 12, 1988, lot 389.
Jan Krugier Collection, New York (acquired at the above sale); his Estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 8, 2014, lot 420.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Exhibited
Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum, Bonnard, September 11, 1992 - January 10, 1993, no. 50.
Dusseldorg, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Pierre Bonnard, das Glück zu Malen, 1993, no. 21.
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Bonnard, January 28 – April 24, 1994, no. 77.
Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, Pierre Bonnard, Early and Late, September 22, 2002 - January 19, 2003, no. 85 (later traveled to Denver).
Literature
H. & J. Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, vol. II, 1906-1919, Paris, 1968, no. 949 (illustrated p. 440).
As an art student in Paris in the late 1880s, Pierre Bonnard met fellow artists Édouard Vuillard and Maurice Denis. The trio would go on to form the Nabis under the leadership of Paul Sérusier, a group who used vibrant, unnatural colors and strong patterns to explore representation, often drawing inspiration from Paul Gauguin. After 1900, Bonnard would return to a more traditional Impressionist style, but his love of color and pattern interplay remained important elements of his work.
During this time, Bonnard continued to paint his beloved Paris, but also developed an affinity for the French countryside. In 1912, the artist purchased a home in the Seine Valley, between Ile-de-France and Normandy, and went on to use the home's terrace and surrounding property as the backdrop for numerous paintings. The present work was painted in 1918, and is likely a preliminary sketch for his monumental 1939 work, La terrasse à Vernon, now in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present lot incorporates the hallmarks of Bonnard's mature oeuvre: bold swaths of color, dappled light, and figures that become elements of the landscape. A group of figures is gathered around a table on a terrace. There appears to be a serving plate on the blue and white checked tablecloth, and other figures are perhaps carrying additional dishes as they gather for a casual meal. The close-cropped composition creates intimacy between subject and viewer; Bonnard's talent for capturing the cozy feeling of private, daily life led to him also being referred to as an 'Intimist.'
The left side of the work is more completely realized; a tree trunk frames the left side of the composition, leading into colorful foliage. The face of one subject peeks out from behind the table as another figure passes behind. The right side of the work sketches out the remaining figures and allows the viewer the rare opportunity to understand the artist's working method as he fashioned each figure. Bonnard said the human figure "should be part of the background against which it is placed," and here we can see how he outlines the figures to create volume and solidity before using color to draw the background forward in the viewer's eye, effectively placing the figures and landscape on the same plane.
The first recorded owners of Jeunes femmes au jardin were noted art collectors and patrons Charles and Eugenia Balkin "Genia" Zadok. The Zadoks collected works by many of Bonnard's contemporaries, including Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, and Marc Chagall, as well as other important artists of the period, including Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Georgio Morandi, and Wassily Kandinsky. The importance of their collection was underscored by the Arts Club of Chicago's 1952 exhibition The School of Paris at Mid-Century: A Selection of Modern Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok, and again at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in a 1956 exhibition titled The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zadok.
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