Bonnard Designed by India Mahdavi

This is the current Winter Masterpieces Exhibition at the NGV. I visited on the 8th of June and loved it. Closing on until the 8th of October 2023 there is plenty of time to see it and I hope to go again. There was an incredibly hostile review in the Age – an expert decrying the Gallery’s efforts to attract the less expert – don’t let it put you off. I initially didn’t understand the focus on the designer India Mahdavi but having experienced it I loved her contribution described by the gallery as an immersive scenography.

The vibrant wallpapers against which many of the works – but not all – were hung. Along with the design of the galleries including cut-outs in the walls through which you could see multiple rooms. Both ideas reflecting the artist’s focus – on wallpapered interiors and in looking out through windows and doors. An art critic referred to Bonnard’s preoccupation with furnished villas and hotel rooms with indescribable décor – often a cheap light fixture in the ceiling, always that flowered wallpaper. The design of the exhibition certainly added to my experience of viewing his work.

I wasn’t familiar with Pierre Bonnard at all but as usual, the curators provided plenty of information throughout the exhibition. I also attended a curator’s talk – one of the benefits of NGV membership. Born in 1867 he initially trained as a lawyer but became an artist early on, selling his first work in 1888.

He was/is celebrated for his use of colour to convey an exquisite sense of emotion and for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings. He was a founding member of a small group of painters called the Nabi who saw themselves as Prophets of a new art that would encompass all elements of modern life. They came after the Impressionists who they considered old hat!

Bonnard was interested in capturing the mood of the streets, observing what he called the ‘theatre of the everyday’. He was friends with the Lumière brothers as they developed moving pictures and was a keen photographer. He wanted to capture moments of unexpected movement in impromptu compositions.

Visits to the south of France from 1909 brought a new intensity of colour to his art , ‘this colour that drives one wild’. as he put it. He spent long periods staying in the south until in 1925 he bought a villa in Cannes where he lived until his death in 1947.

Bonnard’s early pictures capture the immediacy he sought. Here is Strolling singers (Chanteurs ambulants) 1897. He succeeds, I think, in depicting the intensity of the moment for both singer and guitar player,the concentration of the listeners and the curiosity of the little girl.

There are lots of animals in Bonnard’s paintings. Especially dogs and cats., but also horses where, as here, in The cab horse (Le Cheval de fiacre) 1895, they intrude into contemporary street life. This painting is said to reflect his awareness of recent films by the Lumière brothers by presenting a dynamic urban narrative – the viewer senses this is a moment that will be gone as the carriages pass by. We see the wheel of the first carriage and sense the horse’s movement from one side of the screen to the next. An example of Bonnard’s vivid and immersive images of a type never seen before – the swiftness of his technique capturing the relentless change of the scene observed.

Bonnard was heavily influenced by Japanese art. Which can be seen here in The checkered blouse (Le Corsage à carreaux) 1892; Japanese artists being seen as loving checkered fabrics that sing to the eyes. This led to his nickname amongst his fellow Nabi artists being le Nabi très japonard. Note the cat.

Here’s another painting said to show his interest in Japanese artistic techniques; with its aerial perspective inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Paris Boulevard at night (Vue de Paris, la nuit) 1900. This is thought to be the view from his window in the artists’ quarter of Montmartre of the Boulevard de Clichy. From where he captures the still-novel spectacle of an artificially illuminated night, with trees washed by light from below and shadows cast in multiple directions. The early adoption of electric light in Paris made the city seem the very capital of modernity in the nineteenth century.

This painting, Bourgeois afternoon, or The Terrasse family (L’Apres-midi bourgeoise, ou La Famille Terrasse) also painted in 1900 has been described as ‘the one in which Bonnard really began to look like Bonnard’. It shows Bonnard’s brother-in-law’s family in front of the Bonnard’s family house, retaining the artist’s taste for comic deformations bordering on caricature. Humour is one of the dominant qualities in the work.

The Nabi were keen on painting interiors depicting groups working or playing by lamplight. Under the lamp (Sous la lampe) 1899 shows the same family members – sister, her son, her maternal grandmother sitting at the table while her husband looks on. Everyone is engaged in an activity – sewing, studying reading, playing – but they are united by the lamplight which acts as a symbol for home and intimacy.

Bonnard produced many works on commission which established him as a financially and critically successful artist in the early 20th century. He also designed furniture, fabrics fans and other objects as well designing posters and making lithographs. No ‘starving in a garret’ for Pierre. Here is one of his commissioned works. La Place Clichy, 1912. Again we see his interest in capturing a moment. This depicts a bustling Paris intersection from the vantage point of a brasserie. Waiters in black jackets hover over patrons and tout for trade. Above them, the brasserie’s awning creates a golden frame. Beyond is a passing parade of mostly women and children, dressed in hats and coats, illuminated in the bright sunshine of a winter’s morning.

Thus far none of the paintings I’ve selected have been against the wonderful wallpapers chosen by India Mahdavi – she didn’t use them when she thought they would distract from the painting. However here’s one, Woman’s head against the light (Tête de femme à contre-jour) 1906. Backlighting his subjects enables looser, less detailed depictions of facial features – which were never Bonnard’s strong suit. Which is very apparent in the works throughout the exhibition. Instead he focusses on elements of visual interest – the woman’s textured hat, the section of tiled wall or checked upholstery. All suggestive of the life outside, beyond the frame.

Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny in 1983 and lived with her from then on until her death in 1942. They married in 1925. Many of his pictures depict her in all sorts of different settings. Here she is in Coffee (Le Café). Note the dog which is Bonnard and Marthe’s pet – they had a dog and a cat throughout their lives together – always called the same names. He looks like our Otto! This work depicts a motif embraced by Bonnard throughout his career: the domestic interior populated with people, pets and miscellaneous objects. There are lots of teapots and cups and saucers in these paintings. – often the same ones. Marthe sips coffee seemingly unaware of the artist. To the right a part of the wall is cut off giving the impression the viewer is part of the scene. The wallpaper colours and pattern suit the painting perfectly.

Bonnard loved yellow and he also loved red. Here’s another picture of Marthe in a bright red top set against a wallpaper with the same red tones – and which is similar to wallpaper painted in other works by the artist.

Entitled The red blouse (Marthe Bonnard) (Le Corsage rouge [Marthe Bonnard]) 1925, here it is up closer. Gorgeous colour.

Bonnard painted quite a few nude portraits of Marthe – and one of himself alongside her in one of the paintings on display. Once again you can see how he is interested in depicting a natural moment rather than staging a scene. This is Nude crouching in a tub (Nu accroupi au tub) 1918. It’s similar to a photograph near it, that I didn’t take much notice of. Other photos I did take notice of were striking. One of Marthe (taken by him) and one of Bonnard (taken by her) in the nude out in the garden. I liked that he also painted himself in the nude in a lovely double image of them both in the bedroom and adjacent bathroom – but I didn’t take a picture of that one.

The paintings of nudes were attractively presented against this lovely wallpaper. Here are another two of Marthe. They are very naturalistic. And the details of the rooms in which she is washing are beautifully realised.

Perhaps his most famous painting of Marthe in the nude is Siesta (La Sieste) 1900. Painted during Bonnard’s ‘realistic’ period. However her pose is based on Hermaphrodite, a famous erotic Roman copy of a Hellenistic sculpture held in the Louvre. Look at the three wallpaper patterns – Bonnard loved his wallpaper! I’m sure he would approve of India Mahdavi’s designs.

Here is one of my favourite paintings on display. The open window, yellow wall (La Fenêtre ouverte, mur jaune) 1919. The note tells us the composition creates three paintings in one. Within the room … a still-life vignette …beyond the open window a lush townscape … in the foreground shadows beneath the window. An art critic described Bonnard’s true studio as anywhere and everywhere: in furnished villas and hotel rooms with indescribable décor – often a cheap light fixture in the ceiling, always that flowered wallpaper.

Here’s a similar setting, this time with Marthe in the middle between the room which looks so inviting and the beautiful vista farther away. The dining room in the country (Salle à manger à la campagne) 1913. Beautiful composition, beautiful colours.

Bonnard continued to paint interiors throughout his career. Here is a later work, Dining room at Le Cannet (La salle à manger au Cannet) 1932. Another depiction of Marthe – getting older, another teapot and cup and saucer, a water bottle and glass of water, a plate. We are intruders in a quiet moment in Marthe’s life. There’s something timeless about these paintings.

Stairs in the artist’s garden (L’Escalier dans le jardin) 1942-44 was painted after Marthe’s death in 1942. Bonnard was not a gardener. He disapproved of the hand of man in nature and so his own garden was overgrown. However he loved mimosa – and painting yellow things.

Bonnard continued painting until his death in January 1947. Almond tree in bloom (L’Amandier en fleurs) 1946-47 is his last completed work. The tree was outside his bedroom window and every spring it forces me to paint it, he said. In his last weeks, too weak to hold a brush, he got his nephew Charles Terrasse to help him apply the final touches, still seeking, from his bed, to correct the colour by adding more yellow to the green on the ground. A lovely story.

I didn’t take any pictures through the cut away squares in the walls of the galleries – not really understanding why they were there. I get it now – mimicking Bonnard’s love of the framed vista be it indoors or outdoors. I really recommend this exhibition – these pictures give only a tiny glance on what is there. Which is over one hundred works – including the decorative pieces he created. I said I hope to return to it before the 8th of October. Feels like plenty of time, but as we know time flies.