The Hôtel Caumont-Centre d?Art d?Aix-en-Provence is bringing together for the first time the influence of Japanese prints on the work of Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947). It is an original theme, and one that is particularly captivating in terms of the prints selected.
Nearly 130 works from private and public collections in Europe are brought together in this exhibition, which combines magnificent prints by Japanese masters from the Georges Leskowicz collection (Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Utamaro, Koryûsai, Utagawa) with paintings by Bonnard inspired by the bewitching world of Japan.ukiyo-eliterally "images of the floating world".
Although Japanese prints were relegated to second place at the seventh Universal Exhibition in 1867, the works and productions of the Land of the Rising Sun contributed to the vogue for Japanese art in the West. Most of the Impressionists, including Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec, found new sources of inspiration for their paintings. As did the American painter James Whistler (1834-1903), whose work was inspired by Japan. At the end of the 1880s, Pierre Bonnard also fell under the spell of these prints, which he collected until the end of his life.
Japan madness
With his friends in the Nabis group (1), Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard and Paul Ranson, formed in 1889 under the influence of Paul Sérusier, Bonnard wanted to break away from academicism and seek out new forms. These artists, precursors of the avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, wanted to spiritualise art by simplifying it and giving it universal appeal. As early as 1889, Bonnard produced screens inspired by motifs from Japanese art. The exhibition of Japanese prints at the École des Beaux-arts in the spring of 1890 was a real revelation for him and accentuated his choices. From then on, he turned away from the representation of reality and adopted new aesthetic principles: rejection of realism, absence of perspective, flatness of composition, intensity of colour?
"When I came into contact with these frustrating popular images, I realised that, as in this case, colour could express everything without the need for relief or modelling. It seemed to me that it was possible to express light, form and character with colour alone.he wrote.
As Isabelle Cahn, the exhibition?s curator, points out with regard to Japanese art, Bonnard?s impressions of it are as follows "His ability to simplify forms, his art of the understatement, his taste for the unexpected, his instinctive fantasy"..
Bonnard, magician of light and colour
Seduced by the graphic expression of the Japanese and the cohabitation of several temporalities in a single image, Bonnard showed boldness in the composition of his works, reducing space to the flat surface as in Fish in a pond (1943). Particularly attentive to the "Japanese crepons" and crumpled rice paper sold by the Japanese shops on Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris, the "Nabi très Japonard", as he was known, demonstrated this in some of his paintings and in the lithographs he produced at the request of the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, using pure solid colours and arabesque stylisation.
In 1891, he painted the four "Women in the Garden" decorative panels on which the museum tour begins. These elongated formats are reminiscent of Japanese kakemonos. He was the first to combine stylised female figures with a plant motif to create a décor. The prints, collected throughout his life and unfortunately dispersed on his death, are not precisely known, but we can guess from his work that this "floating world", images of the ephemeral and the metamorphoses of nature, resonates with his sense of aesthetics. "It's not about painting life, it's about bringing painting to life".he wrote in 1946 in Observations on the painting.
The nudes of Marthe, muse and model
In 1926, when his wife was in poor health, he moved to Le Cannet. Bonnard painted scenes of everyday life on large canvases stretched in his studio, which he cut out after completing his painting. Receptive to the slightest nuances of light, both diffuse and brilliant, he noted the variations in the weather every day in his notebooks: "beautiful cloudy, "rain and shine, "when the weather is fine but cool, there's vermilion in the orange shadows".? A sensitivity to the colours of time that he shares with the Japanese people. He makes his own the spiritual principle laid down by the great tea master Sen no Rikyû (2), named wabi-sabi simplicity and the art of imperfection, inviting us to observe the beauty of everyday life. He painted interior scenes. His family, newborn babies, children and pets became the subject of numerous paintings and drawings.
At the beginning of the 1890s, his meeting with Marthe, whom he married in 1925, gave him the opportunity to paint nudity in an innovative way that was reminiscent of the Beauties by Utamaro. The exhibition closes with an impressive group of nudes of Marthe, the only model for his nudes. Backlit or in diffused light, Marthe?s slender, curvaceous body is shown in all sorts of ways, crouching, leaning against a doorframe or bathtub, or disappearing into the bathtub where she seems to be dozing off.
His last painting of The almond tree in bloompainted in 1946, exhibited at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, reveals his taste for contemplating nature and the breadth of his genius. This tree gave him "the strength to paint it every year"..
To find out more
The exhibition brings together works by Bonnard, mostly from private collections, but it is regrettable that some of the artist?s major works are missing. The display attempts to show how much his painting owes to Japanese prints, even if this is not immediately obvious! It is above all the prints, which are exceptional, that transcend the exhibition, and even if you don?t like Bonnard, they are of real interest, as much for their signatures as for their beauty. Please note that the Georges Leskowicz has one of the largest collections of Japanese prints in the world.
Hubert Le Gall?s scenography is, as usual, superb. The works are presented in such a way as to immerse visitors in the life of ancient Japan. There is no systematic link between a print and a painting; it is up to each of us to imagine the influence of one on the other.
Exhibition curated by Isabelle Cahn, Honorary General Curator of the Musée d?Orsay.
1 ? The name means prophet in Hebrew, a term that reflects their quest for spirituality and aesthetic renewal.
2 - See the article https://universvoyage.com/la-voie-du-the-un-chemin-de-pleine-conscience/
Exhibition "Bonnard and Japanfrom 30 April to 6 October 2024. Hôtel de Caumont Centre d'Art. 3 rue Joseph-Cabassol. Aix-en-Provence.
Text : Brigitte Postel
Photos : Brigitte Postel and photo credits
