Title
Bust in profile, red background (study)
circa 1920
Artist
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Details
- Alternative title
- Buste de profil, fond rouge (étude)
- Date
- circa 1920
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 46.0 x 52.0 cm stretcher; 73.0 x 78.0 x 9.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation and the Margaret Hannah Olley Art Trust 2000
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 513.2000
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Pierre Bonnard
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Demonstrating Pierre Bonnard’s status as an eminent colourist, ‘Bust in profile, red background’ is an experience of entangled seduction and harmony. Pictured either naked or bathing, the theme as in many of Bonnard’s paintings is his beloved wife Marthe, who is the catalyst for his studies on form and colour. With her neck fully elongated and her head curiously tilted to one side, Marthe bends down in an uncontrived manner with little consciousness of her husband nearby. Although the scene is a domestic one, Marthe’s unusual profile coupled with the earthy ochres and deep ambers evoke the tribal and animalistic elements of the body and intimacy.
At the centre of the foreground-based composition, Marthe’s bronzed face is delicately outlined with an untouched line of white canvas and illustrates Bonnard’s great sensitivity to colour and emotion. Whilst the left-hand side of the canvas is dominated by unharnessed colour and warmth, Bonnard paints a yellow striped sofa on the right to create structure and cool respite. Lying abandoned in one corner of the sofa are Marthe’s clothes, which further remind the viewer of her nakedness and the sensuality of the body. Despite Marthe’s self-absorption, ‘Bust in profile, red background' is a deeply intimate and adoring image of the relationship between husband and wife, as artist and muse and lovers alike. (EF)
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
Pierre Bonnard: observing nature, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 07 Mar 2003–09 Jun 2003
Pierre Bonnard: observing nature, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 04 Jul 2003–28 Sep 2003
Bonnard, Matisse and the Mediterranean, Complesso Monumentale del Vittoriano, Rome, 06 Oct 2006–04 Feb 2007
Modernists: selections from the European collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 07 Nov 2015–25 Apr 2016
Margaret Olley: a generous life, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 15 Jun 2019–13 Oct 2019
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Bibliography
Referenced in 6 publications
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Edmund Capon, Look, 'And then there were two', pg.24-25, Melbourne, Jul 2001, 24, 25 (colour illus.).
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Complesso Monumentale del Vittoriano, Matisse e Bonnard, Viva la pittura!, Rome, 2006, 372, 373 (colour illus.). cat.no.142
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Jean Dauberville and Henry Dauberville, Bonnard catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, '1920-1939', Paris, 1966-1974, Vol.3, 67 (illus.). cat.no. 1042
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Matthew Kangas, William Cumming: the image of consequence, Seattle, 2005, (illus.). this work is not in this exhibition but is referred to in the catalogue
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Angus Trumble, The Burlington Magazine, 'Bonnard', pg. 749-750, London, Oct 2003, 749. exhibition review
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Jörg Zutter (Editor), Pierre Bonnard: observing nature, Canberra, 2003, 35 (colour illus.). fig.31, cat.no.39
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Provenance
Pierre Bonnard, circa 1920-1947, France
Bonnard Estate, 1947-1963, France, Estate no. 618. By descent to his heirs, the Terrasse family 1963
Private Collection, post 1963, New York/New York/United States of America, dates unknown
Nevill Keating Pictures Ltd, pre 24 Oct 2000, London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Nevill Keating Pictures Ltd 2000