Pierre Bonnard

pseudonym: -

birth data

date of birth: 1867

place of birth: Fontenay-aux-Rose

death data

date of death: 1947

death: Le Cannet

biography

The French painter Pierre Bonnard was born on 3 October 1867 in Fontenay-aux-Roses near Paris. He is regarded as one of the chief representatives of Post-Impressionist painting. Landscapes, flower gardens, sailing boats and the female nude, inspired by the Japanese woodcut, are among the artists principal motifs. Bonnard ultimately evolved his own style that incorporated Symbolist elements. At the end of the 1880s he met Paul Sérusier and Maurice Denis at the Académie Julian in Paris and the painter Edouard Vuilliard at the École des Beaux-Arts, with whom he studied the works of van Gogh, Cézanne and Monet. Their special admiration, however, was for Paul Gauguin. In 1890 Bonnard founded Les Nabis group of artists together with Denis, Sérusier and Vuillard. Apart from oil paintings, his ouvre comprises illustrations, lithographs, designs for posters and stage sets. Between 1889 and 1902 he created some 250 lithographs for posters, wall and theatre decorations, as well as illustrations for the magazine La Revue Blanche, among others. In 1925, Bonnard withdrew to the Côte dAzur. Over the years he was honoured internationally with major exhibitions and, in 1940, he was accepted as an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Arts. Pierre Bonnard died on 23 January 1947 in Le Cannet near Cannes.