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Brought to you by. General Enquiries. Lot Essay During the opening years of the 20th century, Bonnard painted a series of Parisian cityscapes near his apartment at 65, rue de Douai that portray with droll delight the countless vignettes and chance encounters that comprise the daily experience of the urban street, glimpsed in passing. In the present scene, two women in showy, oversized hats promenade along the sidewalk, drawing the attention of a slump-shouldered figure who has stopped to rest on a bench.
Rather than painting from a window looking down over the street, as Camille Pissarro had done in Paris and Rouen since the mids, Bonnardβan inveterate early-morning walkerβhere chose a street-level vantage point, positioning himself as an active participant in the bustle of the modern metropolis as well as an astute observer. The neighborhood where he lived and worked was an unpretentious, middle-class quarter at the foot of Montmartre, long frequented by artists and writers; Pablo Picasso lived a block away from May until January , during his second stay in Paris, and painted the area as well.
The principal theme of the painting, however, is not the topography of the street itself but rather the human spectacle that it encompasses. The storefronts rise in the middle distance like a theatrical backdrop, blocking out all but a small corner of sky at the top left. The passage of shadow in the very foreground, with a decorative scalloped edge suggesting an awning above, marks out a distinct, sheltered spot for artist and viewer as they observe this quotidian pageant.
For Bonnard, however, who had still been a teenager when the eighth and final Impressionist Exhibition took place in , the Luxembourg installation was nothing short of revelatory, as were the ensuing Impressionist shows at Durand-Ruel. By the turn of the century, Bonnard had adopted many of the hallmarks of Impressionism, including a white ground, the broken and visible brushstroke, and open-air subject matter.
