Pierre BONNARD (1867 - 1947) - Lot 161

Pierre BONNARD (1867 - 1947) Study for L'Enfant au pâté de sable, circa 1894 Oil on cardboard. Unsigned. Stamp of the Bonnard Estate on the back. (Misses, small dents). 38 x 27 cm Provenance : Jean-Bernard Sandler Collection, Lugt 3423. A certificate from Monsieur Pierre Vernon, dated February 23, 2024, will be given to the buyer. This previously unpublished oil on board is a preparatory study for L'Enfant au pâté de sable, now in the Musée d'Orsay, the fourth sheet of a folding screen dismantled after the artist's death, the other three panels of which are now in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The set is known thanks to a drawing by Bonnard in one of his notebooks and a photograph of his studio, in the background of which he appears. A sketchbook in the Louvre also contains a study for this painting (no. RF 52757,31.). Bonnard, "the very Japanese Nabi", expresses his influence on Japanese art, discovered in Paris at the École des Beaux-arts in 1890, in his framing, point of view and representation of space. With his pure forms, the artist shares his Nabi aesthetic. The model is probably one of his nephews, Jean Terrasse, at the family estate "Le Clos" in Grand-Lemps, Isère.