Pierre Bonnard
Blue-chip#48
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
9/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
10/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
8/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
1/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
1/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Liquidity
- High - works regularly appear at major auction houses; estate representation by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune (historical dealer 1904-1940)
- Collector Base
- International; strong American collector base established through Phillips Collection; major private collections in Europe and Asia
- Auction History
- Note
- From the Drue Heinz collection; previous record was $11.6M at Christie's London in February 2011
- Work
- La Terrasse ou Une terrasse à Grasse
- Sale Date
- May 2019
- Year Painted
- 1912
- Auction House
- Christie's New York
- Market Volume
- Auction Results Available
- Over 4,532 works sold at auction (MutualArt)
- Total Auction Lots Recorded
- Over 6,122 artworks
- Price Segments
- Paintings
- Small Oils: Starting from tens of thousands; Major Works: Multi-millions; Average 2025 USD: 176529
- Prints Lithographs
- Premium Works: Can exceed £229,740 (record for La Promenade Des Nourrices quadriptych, 1989); Typical Range GBP: 5,000-25,000
- Works on Paper Drawings
- Average 2025 USD: 17077
- Hammer Price USD
- $16,000,000
- Market Trajectory
- Overall Trend
- Stable blue-chip market with strong institutional support
- Recent Developments
- 2019 auction record of $19.57M reaffirmed market strength
- Consistent museum acquisition activity
- Strong performance in estate sales (Rockefeller, Allen, Heinz collections)
- Print market remains active with £5,000-£25,000 range for quality lithographs
- Recent Sales 2025
Title Date Price USD Auction House Estimate Performance Mer et mimosas October 2025 $152,400 Christie's below estimate L'Homme et la Femme October 2025 $533,400 Christie's above estimate Bord de mer October 2025 $60,960 Christie's exceeded high estimate Personnages dans la rue October 2025 $228,600 Christie's Les eucalyptus October 2025 $228,600 Christie's below estimate - Price with Premium USD
- $19,570,000
- Historical Notable Sales
Work Year Auction House Note Sale Year Le Petit Déjeuner, Radiateur circa 1930 Sotheby's London Held record for 22 years until 2019 June 2010 La Porte Fenêtre - Matinée Au Cannet 1932 Sotheby's London — February 2003 L'Intérieur (The Green Table) 1914 Christie's New York From Rockefeller Collection after 58 years May 2018 Compotiers Et Assiettes De Fruits circa 1930 Christie's New York From Paul G. Allen Collection; exceeded estimate by over $2 million November 2022 Place Clichy 1906-07 Sotheby's London — June 2006 - Recent Auction Performance
- Price Range USD
- 2 to 19,570,000
- Past 12 Months Paintings Average USD
- 176529
- Past 12 Months Works on Paper Average USD
- 17077
- Market Position
- Market Positioning
- Blue-chip Post-Impressionist; comparable to Vuillard, Denis (fellow Nabis); market recognition as bridge between Impressionism and Modernism
Institutional Presence
- Exhibitions
- Landmark Exhibitions
Title Dates Venue Significance Pierre Bonnard memorial retrospective 1948 Museum of Modern Art, New York Posthumous, originally planned for 80th birthday Bonnard retrospectives — — Major dual retrospectives Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory 2019 Tate Modern, London Sparked renewed international attention and market activity Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature First Australian depth exhibition in 30+ years National Gallery of Australia — - Current Exhibitions 2025
- 6 exhibitions worldwide including Norway, China, Czech Republic, USA, UK, New Zealand
- Recent Major Exhibitions 2020s
Title Dates Venue Notes Bonnard's Worlds — — — Pierre Bonnard June-October 2023 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 100+ works, scenography by India Mahdavi Bonnard: The Experience of Seeing April-May 2023 Acquavella Galleries, New York 20+ paintings from last three decades Pierre Bonnard 2024 Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris Collaboration with Kimbell Art Museum
- Museum Collections
- Museum Holdings Confirmed
- European Presence
- Extensive via Europeana database across multiple European museums
- Major Institutions
- Museum
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- Holdings
- 542 works online
- Significance
- Major retrospective 1998; posthumous memorial exhibition 1948
- Museum
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Holdings
- Extensive collection including The Terrace at Vernonnet (1939), Basket of Bananas (1925)
- Exhibitions
- Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors (2009)
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Holdings
- Major collection including The Checkered Tablecloth (1939), extensive prints
- Exhibitions
- Regular rotations in permanent galleries
- Museum
- Tate Modern/Tate Britain, London
- Holdings
- Significant collection
- Exhibitions
- Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory (2019) - major retrospective
- Museum
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Holdings
- Extensive French collection including Self-Portrait (The Boxer) 1931
- Significance
- Primary French institution for his work
- Museum
- National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
- Holdings
- 402 works of art including A Spring Landscape (c. 1935)
- Museum
- The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
- Holdings
- Duncan Phillips was early champion; significant holdings
- Exhibitions
- Bonnard's Worlds (2024), multiple retrospectives
- Museum
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Holdings
- Including Dining Room on the Garden (1935)
- Museum
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Holdings
- Multiple works
- Museum
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
- Holdings
- Confirmed in collection
- Museum
- Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
- Holdings
- International representation
- Museum
- Neue Pinakothek, Munich
- Holdings
- European collection
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Holdings
- Confirmed collection
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution
- Holdings
- Multiple museums
- Museum
- Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Holdings
- Decorative arts and prints
- Total Works in Database
- 367
- Institutional Acquisitions
- Recent Notable
- Ongoing museum acquisitions particularly of prints and works on paper
- Historical Collecting
- Strong institutional support from 1930s-present; Duncan Phillips championed from 1920s
- Awards and Recognition
- Career Honors
- Commissioned by Louis Comfort Tiffany for stained glass window (1895)
- Critical Reassessment
- Reputation declined post-death as avant-garde movements dominated; major rehabilitation since 1980s
- Posthumous Recognition
- Matisse declared him 'a great artist for our time and, naturally, for posterity'
Career & Biography
- Identity
- Personal Life
- Residences
- Paris - early careerVernonnet (near Vernon, Seine valley) - purchased 1912, called 'Ma Roulette'Le Cannet (French Riviera) - purchased villa 'Le Bosquet' 1920s, died there 1947
- Relationships
- Longtime partner Marthe de Méligny (met 1893, married 1925, d. 1942) - primary muse and subject; brief relationship with Renée Monchaty (met 1918, committed suicide 1925 after Bonnard married Marthe)
- Working Method
- Painted in studio from memory and sketches, not en plein air; tacked unstretched canvases to walls; worked on multiple paintings simultaneously; known to touch up finished works in museums
- Formal Training
Institution Period Notes Sorbonne, Paris — Studied law at father's insistence, briefly worked as barrister École des Beaux-Arts 1880s Failed to win Prix de Rome Académie Julian 1889 Met Maurice Denis, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Sérusier - formed Les Nabis group - Early Influences
- Father Eugène Bonnard was senior official in French Ministry of War; early education at Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée Charlemagne
- Artistic Development
- Major Periods
- Period
- 1891-1900
- Description
- Nabis period - founding member of Les Nabis group, influenced by Paul Gauguin and Japanese prints, focus on decorative arts, posters, lithographs
- Period
- 1900-1912
- Description
- Transition to Intimism - domestic interiors, urban scenes, increased focus on painting over graphic work
- Period
- 1912-1947
- Description
- Mature style - purchased house at Vernonnet (1912), intense use of color, memory-based painting, moved to Le Cannet (1920s), approached abstraction in late works
- Key Influences
- Paul Gauguin - synthetism and flat color areasJapanese woodblock prints (Hokusai, Hiroshige) - unusual vantage points, bold patternsHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec - met 1891Impressionism - modified by innate sense of decoration
- Artistic Philosophy
- Painted from memory using small diary sketches; 'What I am after is the first impression—I want to show all one sees on first entering the room'; color as end in itself; worked on canvases for months or years
- Career Breakthrough
- 1891 - France-Champagne poster commission launched professional career
- Corrected Biographical Information
- Note
- Getty ULAN data appears to contain an error. The Swiss architect Pierre Bonnard (b. 1850) is a different individual. Based on museum holdings (367 works) and all research, this is Pierre Bonnard, the French Post-Impressionist painter
- Full Name
- Pierre Bonnard
- Birth Date
- October 3, 1867
- Death Date
- January 23, 1947
- Birth Place
- Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
- Death Place
- Le Cannet, France
- Nationality
- French
- Lifespan Years
- 79
Artistic Profile
- Influences
- Influences and Connections
- Drew From
- Japanese woodblock prints (Hokusai, Hiroshige), Paul Gauguin's synthetism, Impressionist light and color, Édouard Vuillard, old masters (Vermeer spatial division, Chardin still lifes)
- Influenced
- Contemporary painters interested in color and 'memory space' (Peter Doig); ongoing relevance to color-focused painting
- Contemporaries
- Close friendship with Henri Matisse (extensive correspondence), fellow Nabis, knew Claude Monet (lived near Giverny)
- Themes and Subjects
- Primary Themes
- Intimate domestic interiors - dining rooms, parlorsBath scenes - Marthe in bathtub (signature subject, 1920s-1940s)Terraces and gardens - especially Vernonnet and Le Cannet propertiesStill lifes - fruit, flowers, table settingsUrban scenes - Paris streets, boulevards (early career)Landscapes - Seine valley, French Riviera
- Critical Themes
- Color As Primary
- Color not descriptive but experiential and emotional; manipulated for aesthetic effect over naturalism
- Time and Transience
- Captures moments just past, ephemeral quality, passage of time
- Memory vs Observation
- Painted from memory and sketches, not en plein air; allowed for psychological transformation
- Ambiguity and Melancholy
- Despite bright colors, underlying melancholy and psychological complexity; 'heat of mixed emotions'
- Intimacy and Domesticity
- 'Intimist' - everyday rituals elevated to profound meditations
- Recurring Motifs
- Windows and doors as frames within frames, tables laden with fruit, nude figures integrated into decorative patterns, pets (dogs, cats)
- Movements and Periods
- Late Period 1939 1947
- Key Works
- The Checkered Tablecloth (1939), Nude in Bathtub (c. 1940-46), The Almond Tree in Blossom (1947, final work)
- Characteristics
- Approaching abstraction, subordinating subject to color/light effects, intense Mediterranean light
- Nabis Period 1891 1900
- Key Works
- France-Champagne poster (1891), Quelques Aspects de la vie de Paris lithographs (1899)
- Characteristics
- Flat areas of color, decorative emphasis, Japanese influence, graphic work prominence
- Mature Period 1912 1939
- Key Works
- Dining Room in the Country (1913), The Terrace at Vernonnet (1939), bath series
- Characteristics
- Color becomes dominant concern, memory-based working, psychological complexity
- Intimist Period 1900 1912
- Key Works
- The Family of Claude Terrasse (c. 1899), Man and Woman (1900)
- Characteristics
- Domestic interiors, family scenes, intimate scale, anecdotal content
- Technical Characteristics
- Color Usage
- Intense, non-naturalistic color; built with small brush marks and close values; 'tyranny of color' - one spectral range dominating; complex color relationships throughout canvas
- Composition
- Unusual vantage points; asymmetrical arrangements; figures often at margins or integrated into background; flat, tapestry-like surfaces; objects taking psychological qualities
- Surface Quality
- Worked from memory, not life; unstretched canvases tacked to walls; built up over months or years; dreamlike, luminous quality
- Spatial Treatment
- Flattened space influenced by Japanese prints; ambiguous depths; tension between decoration and representation
- Techniques and Mediums
- Perspective
- Deliberate distortions; multiple viewpoints; flattening three-dimensional space
- Working Method
- Tacking unstretched canvas to wall; working on multiple canvases simultaneously; reworking over years; cutting canvas to final size after completion
- Color Application
- Building up complex surfaces; touching up even after completion (known to revise works in museums)
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Major Critical Voices
- Critics
- Pablo Picasso - 'potpourri of indecision...not really a modern painter'
- Christian Zervos (1947) - 'Impressionism becomes insipid and falls into decline'
- Peter Schjeldahl - 'so harmless a little master'
- Linda Nochlin - feminist critique of male gaze in bath paintings
- Supporters
- Henri Matisse - 'a great artist for our time and, naturally, for posterity'
- Duncan Phillips - early champion, major collector
- Jed Perl - 'unique combination of visual taste, psychological insight, and poetic feeling'
- Roberta Smith - praised 'heat of mixed emotions' and 'chromatic veils'
- David Sylvester - noted compositional innovation around central axis
- Scholarly Recognition
- Major Monographs
- John Rewald, Pierre Bonnard (1948)Timothy Hyman, Bonnard (Thames & Hudson, 1998)Sarah Whitfield and John Elderfield, Bonnard (Tate Gallery, 1998)
- Catalogue Raisonne
- Title
- Bonnard: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint
- Years
- 1965-1974, revised editions
- Authors
- Jean and Henry Dauberville
- Volumes
- 4 volumes covering 1888-1947
- Year
- 1981
- Title
- Bonnard: The Complete Graphic Work
- Authors
- Francis Bouvet (prints)
- Year
- 1952
- Title
- Bonnard lithographe
- Authors
- Claude Roger-Marx
- Art Historical Positioning
- Legacy
- Recognized as one of greatest colorists of 20th century; unique position between Impressionism and Modernism
- Movements
- Post-Impressionism, Les Nabis (founding member), Intimism, bridge to Modernism
- Contemporaries
- Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Henri Matisse (close friend)
- Influence on Others
- Contemporary artists Peter Doig cites interest in Bonnard's 'memory space'; ongoing influence on color-focused painters
- Critical Reception Evolution
- Early Career
- Success with France-Champagne poster (1891); respected member of Les Nabis; known more for prints than paintings initially
- Mature Period
- Steady commercial success; Julius Meier-Graefe (1933) called him potentially 'France's most distinguished, not to say her greatest, painter'
- Immediate Post Death
- Work largely overlooked; attacked in Cahiers d'Art (1947) as 'facile and agreeable'; Picasso famously dismissed as 'not really a modern painter'
- Rehabilitation 1980s Present
- Major reassessment; Jed Perl (2009): 'most thoroughly idiosyncratic of all the great twentieth-century painters'; recognized as pioneering modernist
- Publications and Media
- Scholarly Publications
- Academic Articles
- Subject of ongoing art historical scholarship on color theory, modernism, intimism
- Museum Catalogues
- Extensive exhibition catalogues from MoMA, Tate, Met, Phillips, Centre Pompidou
- Documentary Coverage
- 2023 film 'Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe' directed by Martin Provost
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Art Fair Presence
- Current
- Works appear at major fairs through dealer presentations (TEFAF, Frieze Masters, Art Basel)
- Historical
- Not applicable (pre-fair era artist)
- Representation
- Gallery Network
- Auction Houses
- Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams, Artcurial, Kornfeld (Switzerland)
- Specialist Dealers
- Wildenstein, Acquavella Galleries (recent exhibition 2023), Galerie Berès
- Geographic Presence
- Strong in Paris, New York, London auction markets
- Historical Representation
- Primary Dealers
- Period
- Primary dealer throughout career
- Gallery
- Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
- Significance
- Major career-long relationship, multiple exhibitions
- Period
- 1890s-early 1900s
- Gallery
- Ambroise Vollard
- Significance
- Published major lithograph series including Quelques Aspects de la vie de Paris (1899)
- Geographic Reach
- Current Market Availability
- Availability
- Regular auction appearances, estimated 10-20+ lots annually at major houses
- Estate Status
- Artist died 1947, works in public domain in many jurisdictions
- Secondary Market
- Works available through major auction houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams) and secondary market dealers
- Gallery Representation
- No primary gallery (deceased artist); handled by major Impressionist/Modern specialists
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