"La toilette assise", 1925, lithograph printed in black, 330x235mm; 13" x 9 1/4", full margins. Edition 25, before monogram. Partial watermark. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Edmond Frapier, Galerie des Peintres-Graveurs, Paris, ink stamp lower left. For the album "Maitres et petits maitres d'aujourd' hui". In very good condition [Bouvet 96]
Born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris, Pierre Bonnard entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, after preparatory training for the study of law. Pierre Bonnard, and his friend Edouard Vuillard, belonged to a group of artists who called themselves Nabis, a word for prophet. The Nabis rejected the naturalism and spontaneity of Impressionism in favor of two-dimensional designs that were ideally suited for color lithography. Bonnard's participation in the Salon des Independants and the first group show of the Nabis at the Galerie Le Barc de Boutteville, both in 1891, met with favorable critical response. Between 1891 and 1894 Bonnard developed a friendship with Toulouse-Lautrec, and the influence of that post-Impressionist may be seen in his prints. But Impressionism continued to be evident into the 20th century when he gave his first one-man show at Durand-Ruel's and in his Salon des Independents and Salon d'Automne in 1901 and 1903.
From 1923 onward, the character of Bonnard's graphic works changed. There is a deeper character in his work, a more sobering reality of the world. The little everyday scenes of the past seem distant from these women, their faces carried away in deep thought. And, it is if Bonnard had distanced himself from his models, focusing more on the mysteriousness emanating from people and worldly things. He became increasingly preoccupied with light until it dominated everything else. "Bonnard was achieving a sublimation of the sadness born out of a consciousness of beauty of life on the one hand and the brevity of life on the other". (Bouvet)
"La toilette assise" is in a 29 1/4" x 24 1/2" shallow reverse swan black over red frame with a raised silver over red wash lip. The white Belgian linen outer and black shadow rag mats are acid and lignin free and protected with Acrylite-AR OP3 (UV) by CYRO ........ $3,500.00
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