3. Pierre Bonnard
(1867-1947)

Dans la Rue

(click on image to print)
Bonnard, Dans la Rue

Dans la Rue

Color lithograph, ca. 1900, 267 x 139 mm. Roger Marx 46, Bouvet 71. An undescribed proof impression, with a fifth color and other differences from the edition, on wove paper with large margins; there is a vertical split in the blank left margin, and the print has been laid down to another sheet. In addition to the extra color (black or very dark brown), there is an increased use here of white areas, and an overprinting of the red stone, varied through the brown background. The specified edition was of 100, which were signed and numbered. Roger Marx says the print was included in the Insel Verlag Album; Bouvet says that this is an error. The title too is in error, as the image is clearly an indoor scene, the reluctant schoolgirl opening the door to go off to school while her mother watches. This is borne out by a watercolor Bonnard did of the same subject. The print nicely exemplifies the Nabi aesthetic of flattening the subject matter and creating patterns. Though not large, it is one of Bonnard’s best prints in that style.