Bonnard, Pierre (1867-1947)

French painter, designer, and graphic artist. Influenced by Gauguin and Japanese prints, he specialized in intimate domestic scenes and landscapes, his paintings shimmering with colour and light. With other members of les Nabis, he explored the decorative arts (posters, stained glass, furniture), but is most widely known for his series of nudes, for example, Nude in the Bath (1938; Petit Palais, Paris).

He studied at the Académie Julian at the same time as Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Edouard Vuillard, and Ker Xavier Roussel (1867-1944), and was associated with them in the Nabis movement. He began with various forms of design for furniture, screens, stage sets, and posters, but, influenced by the Impressionists, became celebrated for pictures of Paris streets and domestic interiors. With Vuillard he is sometimes described as an ‘Intimist’. He is equally noted for the large decorative feeling of his work and for warm and beautiful colour. He produced lithographs in colour which are triumphs of graphic art. His free handling of colour was an inspiration to the abstract painters of the post-World War II period.