Pierre Bonnard
French, 1867 - 1947The Lamp, ca. 1899
On view
Oil on academy board mounted on panel
Dimensions22 1/4 × 27 1/2 in.
Framed: 30 1/4 × 36 1/2 × 4 3/4 in.
Gift of The Whiting Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Johnson, 1977.25
Pierre Bonnard, a French Post-Impressionist painter renowned for his opulent use of color, was an important link between Impressionism and European Modernism. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in his early twenties and had co-founded the Nabis group by 1888. The Nabis (Hebrew for “prophet”) owed much of their theory and style to Seurat and Gauguin. They were a group of young artists committed to creating work of a symbolic and spiritual nature.
Although he had a pronounced interest in light like his Impressionist friends, Bonnard eventually came to define his own distinctive style. He was attracted to the decorative aspects of domestic interiors. The Lamp illustrates one of the intimate subjects that Bonnard was so adept at painting. The central element is a glass and brass Victorian ceiling lamp that illuminates the members of the Terrasse family as they gather to eat.
