id: 82853 accession number: 2020.151 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.151 updated: 2022-06-25 09:00:12.552000 Album des peintres-graveurs: The Little Laundress, 1896. Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947), printed by Auguste Clot (French, 1858-1936), Ambroise Vollard (French, 1867-1939). Color lithograph on China paper; image: 29 x 19.7 cm (11 7/16 x 7 3/4 in.); sheet: 45.4 x 33.7 cm (17 7/8 x 13 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.151 © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York title: The Little Laundress title in original language: series: Album des peintres-graveurs series in original language: creation date: 1896 creation date earliest: 1896 creation date latest: 1896 current location: creditline: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York --- culture: France, 19th century technique: color lithograph on China paper department: Prints collection: PR - Lithograph type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Bouvet 40 --- CREATORS * Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947) - artist Pierre Bonnard was a law student when he began his artistic training in 1887 at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met Paul Sérusier (1864-1927) and the theorist and painter Maurice Denis (1870-1943). Both would be influential in his artistic career and become Bonnard's lifelong friends. In 1889, the year he obtained his law degree, he saw the exhibition at Café Volpini (see Gauguin, Woman in the Waves, no. 100) and was particularly impressed with Gauguin's work. Sérusier, after having returned from studying with Gauguin in Pont-Aven, decided to form his own artistic group called the Nabis (Hebrew: prophets). The founding members of the Nabis included Denis, who wrote the manifesto for the group, "Définition du néo-traditionnisme" (published in May 1890 in Art et critique), Bonnard, Paul Ranson (1864-1909), and Henri-Gabriel Ibels (1867-1936). Their first exhibition occurred in 1891, and they were later joined by Ker-Xavier Roussel (1867-1944) and Vuillard (q.v.). Based loosely on the synthetist goals established by Gauguin and Émile Bernard, the movement was created from Sérusier's vision of an artistic brotherhood dedicated to symbolism whereby a universal language could be expressed through symbols. The Nabis were opposed to the naturalism taught at academies by artists such as Bouguereau (q.v.) and wanted to move away from didactic and moral paintings toward a more decorative style characterized by simplified drawing, flat patches of color, and heavy set contours. Bonnard's works of the 1890s were influenced by the innovations of Gauguin as well as Japanese prints, which were easily accessible in nineteenth-century Paris. His paintings took on a decorative quality, mirroring his artistic expressions in other media such as stained glass, furniture, pottery, and painted screens. Bonnard's and Vuillard's domestic interior paintings of the 1890s were often described using the term intimisme. In 1891 Bonnard also experimented with other media, including poster designs and lithographs, which inspired his friend Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), whom he had met through La revue blanche, a magazine that published the Nabis' work. Around 1900 the members of the Nabis began to drift apart. Between 1905 and 1910 Bonnard and Vuillard traveled to England, Belgium, Holland, Spain, and Italy, visiting many museums. Bonnard's art began to gravitate toward impressionism, but his colors were more expressive and his compositions more overtly structured; elements of the painted interiors such as doors, windows or pieces of furniture often provided a strong compositional framework. He also worked extensively with photographs. His late works were acclaimed by fellow Parisians like Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Paul Signac (1863-1935). After 1920 Bonnard exhibited extensively and became an internationally renowned artist, receiving much recognition in the United States, where he traveled in 1926. * Auguste Clot (French, 1858-1936) - printer * Ambroise Vollard (French, 1867-1939) - publisher French art dealer and publisher, 1867-1939 --- measurements: Image: 29 x 19.7 cm (11 7/16 x 7 3/4 in.); Sheet: 45.4 x 33.7 cm (17 7/8 x 13 1/4 in.) state of the work: I/I edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: inscribed and signed, lower right, in graphite: no. 46 / Bonnard; signed and dated, upper center, on stone: Bonnard / 96 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900 opening date: 2021-07-01T04:00:00 Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (July 1-September 19, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne, Switzerland date: ?-before 2005 footnotes: citations: (R.M Light & Co., Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Shaker Heights, OH) date: ?-2005 footnotes: citations: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Shaker Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2005-2020 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2020 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Bonnard was commissioned to create this print by the renowned art dealer Ambroise Vollard for inclusion in his luxury print portfolio titled Album des peintres-graveurs. digital description: This print depicts one of the many women and girls who worked in the Parisian laundry industry during the late 19th century. Carrying a basket that nearly matches her own size, a small silhouetted figure makes her way down an empty street, either picking up or dropping off clothes to a client. Bonnard represented the scene with minimal detail, portraying the laundress as a dark silhouette in stark contrast to the light cobblestones of the street on which she walks. wall description: This image of an overburdened laundress about to cross paths with a stray dog cleverly inverts one of Bonnard’s favorite urban and garden motifs: a fashionable Parisian woman walking her dog, as seen in the poster Le Salon des Cent (Salon of the One Hundred), also in this gallery. Notice that the three pedestrians in the preparatory study for this print (on view nearby) have been eliminated in the lithograph in order to focus the viewer’s attention on the laundress. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Bouvet, Francis. Bonnard: The Complete Graphic Work. New York: Rizzoli, 1981. page number: Mentioned: no. 40 url: Chapin, Mary Weaver, and Heather Lemonedes Brown. Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889-1900. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021. page number: Reproduced: P. xi url: --- IMAGES