Bonnard, Pierre

(born Oct. 3, 1867, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Fr.—died Jan. 23, 1947, Le Cannet) French painter and printmaker. He studied at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts (1888–89). In the 1890s he became a leading member of the Nabis group and came under the influence of Art Nouveau and Japanese prints. With his friend , he developed the intimate domestic interior scene, a genre known as Intimism, depicting fashionable Parisian life in the years before World War I. He also produced still lifes, self-portraits, seascapes, and large-scale decorative paintings. In 1910 he discovered the south of France and began a series of luminous landscapes of the Mediterranean region. He was fascinated by perspective, which he employed in paintings such as The Dining Room (1913). From the 1920s he specialized in landscapes, interiors, views of gardens, and bathing nudes. He produced illustrations for the celebrated journal Revue blanche and decorative pages for Paul Verlaine's book of poetry Parallèlement (1900). Bonnard was one of the greatest colourists of modern art.

Find more information on Bonnard, Pierre. Upgrade to Britannica Online for more on Bonnard, Pierre.