Pierre Bonnard
Blue-chipEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Pierre Bonnard’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
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Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Recent auction highlight
A result from Egon’s tracked auction sales; historical auction records are researched separately. Price including buyer’s premium.
Auction highlights
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| Work | Result | Venue and date |
|---|---|---|
| Mer et mimosas | $152,400 | Christie's, October 2025 |
| L'Homme et la Femme | $533,400 | Christie's, October 2025 |
| Bord de mer | $60,960 | Christie's, October 2025 |
7 further auction entries on record for Pierre Bonnard — inside Egon.
- 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
- Price with premium USD
- 19570000
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
Research updated
Exhibitions
Landmark exhibitions
Pierre Bonnard memorial retrospective
- Dates
- 1948
- Venue
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Significance
- Posthumous, originally planned for 80th birthday
Bonnard retrospectives
- Venues
- Tate Gallery London (Feb-May 1998), MoMA New York (June-Oct 1998)
- Significance
- Major dual retrospectives
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
- Dates
- 2019
- Venue
- Tate Modern, London
- Significance
- Sparked renewed international attention and market activity
Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature
- Dates
- First Australian depth exhibition in 30+ years
- Venue
- National Gallery of Australia
- Works
- 110+ paintings, drawings, lithographs, photographs
- Current exhibitions 2025
- 6 exhibitions worldwide including Norway, China, Czech Republic, USA, UK, New Zealand
Recent major exhibitions 2020s
Bonnard's Worlds
- Venues
- Kimbell Art Museum (Nov 2023-Jan 2024), The Phillips Collection (Mar-June 2024)
- Significance
- First major DC exhibition in 20 years, 60-70 paintings
Pierre Bonnard
- Dates
- June-October 2023
- Notes
- 100+ works, scenography by India Mahdavi
- Venue
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bonnard: The Experience of Seeing
- Dates
- April-May 2023
- Notes
- 20+ paintings from last three decades
- Venue
- Acquavella Galleries, New York
Pierre Bonnard
- Dates
- 2024
- Notes
- Collaboration with Kimbell Art Museum
- Venue
- Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
Museum collections
Museum holdings confirmed
- European presence
- Extensive via Europeana database across multiple European museums
Major institutions
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- Holdings
- 542 works online
- Significance
- Major retrospective 1998; posthumous memorial exhibition 1948
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)
Art Institute of Chicago
- Holdings
- Major collection including The Checkered Tablecloth (1939), extensive prints
- Exhibitions
- Regular rotations in permanent galleries
Tate Modern/Tate Britain, London
- Holdings
- Significant collection
- Exhibitions
- Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory (2019) - major retrospective
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Holdings
- Extensive French collection including Self-Portrait (The Boxer) 1931
- Significance
- Primary French institution for his work
View 10 more records
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
- Holdings
- 402 works of art including A Spring Landscape (c. 1935)
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
- Holdings
- Duncan Phillips was early champion; significant holdings
- Exhibitions
- Bonnard's Worlds (2024), multiple retrospectives
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Holdings
- Including Dining Room on the Garden (1935)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Holdings
- Multiple works
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
- Holdings
- Confirmed in collection
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
- Holdings
- International representation
Neue Pinakothek, Munich
- Holdings
- European collection
Cleveland Museum of Art
- Holdings
- Confirmed collection
Smithsonian Institution
- Holdings
- Multiple museums
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
Research updated
Identity
Personal life
Residences
- Paris - early career
- Vernonnet (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
Sorbonne, Paris
- Year
- 1888
- Notes
- Studied law at father's insistence, briefly worked as barrister
- Degree
- Law degree
École des Beaux-Arts
- Notes
- Failed to win Prix de Rome
- Period
- 1880s
Académie Julian
- Notes
- Met Maurice Denis, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Sérusier - formed Les Nabis group
- Period
- 1889
- 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 areas
- Japanese woodblock prints (Hokusai, Hiroshige) - unusual vantage points, bold patterns
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - met 1891
- Impressionism - 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
Research updated
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, parlors
- Bath scenes - Marthe in bathtub (signature subject, 1920s-1940s)
- Terraces and gardens - especially Vernonnet and Le Cannet properties
- Still lifes - fruit, flowers, table settings
- Urban 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
Research updated
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
Bonnard: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint
- Years
- 1965-1974, revised editions
- Authors
- Jean and Henry Dauberville
- Volumes
- 4 volumes covering 1888-1947
Bonnard: The Complete Graphic Work
- Year
- 1981
- Authors
- Francis Bouvet (prints)
Bonnard lithographe
- Year
- 1952
- 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
Research updated
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
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| Period | Gallery | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Primary dealer throughout career | Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris | Major career-long relationship, multiple exhibitions |
| 1890s-early 1900s | Ambroise Vollard | 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
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Pierre Bonnard: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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