Pierre Bonnard's Birthday
Next: October 3, 2027
Colour in the everyday.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the birthday of Pierre Bonnard, born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris, on 3 October 1867. He studied law at his father's insistence, but in 1891 a poster he designed caught the eye of Toulouse-Lautrec, and he decided to give his life to painting. With his friends in the Nabis group he painted lamplit rooms, tables laden with fruit, gardens and the people closest to him, in colour so warm that he is counted among the greatest colourists of modern art. He died at Le Cannet in 1947.
How it's celebrated
There is no organised observance. In Le Cannet, the Musée Bonnard and the walking trail 'Sur les pas de Bonnard' let visitors stand where he stood and see the hills and red roofs he painted. Anywhere else, his birthday is a good excuse to visit a gallery, or simply to notice how the light falls across your own kitchen table.
Did you know
- His love of Japanese prints earned him the nickname 'le Nabi très japonard', the very Japanese Nabi.
- He often worked on several canvases at once from memory, constantly retouching them, which is why many of his paintings can only be dated approximately.
- Bonnard painted nearly 300 works at Le Cannet, and the only luxury in his modest house there was a bathtub, installed at his wife Marthe's insistence.
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- World Teachers' Day · October 5, 2027
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