BONNARD Pierre

Pierre BONNARD was a French painter, sculptor, decorator and engraver born in Fontenay-aux-Roses (Seine) in 1867 and died in Le Cannet (Alpes-Maritimes) in 1947.

He participated in the founding of the post-impressionist nabis movement who was inspired by Gauguin and favored simplified forms and exalted colors. His figurative paintings include portraits, female nudes, landscapes, seascapes and still lifes.

"Painter of happiness", "last of the Impressionists", "bourgeois intimist": there's no shortage of expressions to describe an artist who was one of the greatest colorists of the 20th century, but also particularly innovative in the primacy given to sensation over the model, and in his incomparable treatment of light and color. Although very independent, his work was nonetheless immensely successful.

From the 1890s onwards, he devoted himself to the graphic arts, notably with publisher Ambroise Vollard, who produced one of his most famous prints, "La petite Blanchisseuse", in 1896.