Pierre Bonnard: Femme à sa toilette Reframed

Known for his radiant paintings with elaborately patterned surfaces and innovative formal compositions, French painter and intimist Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was committed to the exploration of color, figuration, and decorative patterns. While in law school, Bonnard took art classes at the Académie Julian in Paris before being accepted at the  École des Beaux-Arts, where he met Édouard Vuillard and continued practicing impressionism. Bonnard joined with his friends from the Académie Julian to form Les Nabis, an informal group of artists bound by ambitions rather than common aesthetics in their artworks.

One of our recent framing projects, a Pierre Bonnard domestic scene, can be viewed at the multi-generational and highly esteemed Acquavella Gallery, which recently opened in Palm Beach.

Painting predominantly still lifes, landscapes, and intimate scenes of his longtime muse—Bonnard’s wife, Marthe de Méligny—Bonnard’s work transformed traditional historical subjects and images of his everyday world into bold experiments in color, pattern, and composition.

For this lovely impressionist work of art, which illustrates the artist’s wife Marthe in a peignoir after the bath, we selected an antique late 17th-century hand-carved Louis XIII-style French frame. Featuring a soft gilded finish, the patina complements the pastel palette while the continuous floral pattern befits the subject.