Young Girl Sitting with a Rabbit|Pierre Bonnard |Search Collection

Updated 18 March 2024

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Permanent collection

Pierre Bonnard

Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1867 - Le Cannet, 1947

Young Girl Sitting with a Rabbit

Date	1891
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	96.5 x 43
Inscriptions	Signed (P and B in monogram) and dated upper left: P Bonnard / 1891
Credit Line	Purchased
Standard ref.	Dauberville 24
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1987-0001

The Japonisme boom that spread among the artists and writers of the second half of the 19th century reflected the profound influence exerted by Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and other Japanese arts on the premier artists of the day. Bonnard, one of the central members of the Nabis group, was not excluded from this trend. He was given the apt nickname of "Le Nabi-japonard" by his contemporaries for his admiration for Japanese art. In fact, he owned numerous Ukiyo-e prints, including the works of Hiroshige, Toyokuni, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi, and stated, "The walls of my room are inundated with these gaudy woodblock prints." For Bonnard, who discarded the traditional European expression of three-dimensional space and tended towards decorative, idealized flattened compositions, Japanese woodblock prints were the object of wonder. Young Girl Sitting with a Rabbit, painted in 1891, represents a turning point in Bonnard's early creative work. The decorative qualities characterizing his Nabis period are clearly visible here, such as the vertical composition, the S-shaped curve of the girl's form, the decorative forms and the two dimensional spatial composition. All of these elements reflect the strong influence of Japanese art. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.109)

Provenance

Arsène Alexandre, Paris; Auc. Arsène Alexandre, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 18 May 1903, no. 4; Pierre Bonnard (acquired at the above sale); Elie Faure, Paris; Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1912; Auc., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 9 February 1925, no. 7; Félix Fénéon, Paris; Auc. Félix Fénéon, Hôtel Drouot Paris, 3 December 1941, no. 33; Albert Kleinmann; E. & A. Silbermann Galleries, New York; William S. Rubin, New York; Richard L. Feign Gallery, Chicago; Auc., Sotheby's, New York, 11 November 1987, no. 36; Seibu Pisa, Tokyo, by which sold to the NMWA, 1988.

Exhibition History

1891: Saint-Gernan-en-Laye, 0 1891 - 0 1891
1893: Ambroise Vollard, Paris, 0 1893 - 0 1893
1924: Tableaux de Pierre Bonnard de 1891à 1922, Galerie Druet, Paris, 0 1924 - 0 1924, cat. no. 2
1928: Bonnard, Vuillard, Roussel, Modigliani, Lyon, 0 1928 - 0 1928, cat. no. 1, pl. 1
1933: Portaits de Pierre Bonnard, Galerie Braun, Paris, 0 1933 - 0 1933, cat. no. 1, repr.
1956: Visionaries and Dreamers, Corcoran Gallery, Washignton D. C., 0 1956 - 0 1956, cat. no. 10, repr.
1964: Bonnard and his Environment, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 0 1964 - 0 1964, Los Angels; The Art Institute, Chicago, Los Angels; The Art Institute, Chicago, cat. no. 1, col. repr.
1981: St- Germain-en Laye, 0 August 1981 - 0 September 1981
1988: Le Japonisme, Galerie nationales du Grand Pallais, Paris, 17 May 1988 - 15 August 1988, cat. no. 269, col. repr.
1988: Le Japonisme, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 23 September 1988 - 11 December 1988, cat. no. 269, repr.
1989: The French Modern Painting, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Miyakonojo, 15 April 1989 - 14 May 1989, cat. no. 16, col. repr.
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Ibara Municipal Denchu Art Museum, 10 April 1990 - 23 April 1990, cat. no. 17, col. repr.
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Cultural Center of Kagawa Prefecture, Takamatsu, 28 April 1990 - 13 May 1990, cat. no. 17, col. repr.
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Cultural Center of Toyota City, 19 May 1990 - 3 June 1990, cat. no. 17
1991: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Hachinohe City Museum of Art, 28 September 1991 - 27 October 1991, cat. no. 17
1991: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Tendo City Museum of Art, Tendo, 1 November 1991 - 24 November 1991, cat. no. 17
1993: Nabis: 1888-1900, Zurich, Kunsthaus, 28 May 1993 - 15 August 1993, cat. no. 5, repr. color., Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 21 September 1993 - 3 January 1994
1996: The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 47
1997: Pierre Bonnard Exhibition, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 28 March 1997 - 18 May 1997, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, 24 May-21 July, cat. no. 5, col. repr.
2007: Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, patron of the avant-garde, the Art Institute of Chicago, 17 February 2007 - 13 May 2007, cat. no. 4, col. repr. ; Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 19 June-16 September 2007(as "De Cézanne à Picasso. Chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard"), cat. no. 7, fig. 102, repr.
2007: De Cézanne à Picasso: chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard, Musée d'Orsay, 19 June 2007 - 16 September 2007, cat. no. 4, col. repr.
2012: [Traveling Exhibitions presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2012] Modern European Art: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Ibara Municipal Denchu Art Museum (Okayama), 5 October 2012 - 25 November 2012, 18
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 8 October 2015 - 21 February 2016, cat. no. 110, col. repr.

Bibliography

1919: Fosca, François. Bonnard. Genève, 1919, pl. II.
1921: Klingsor, Tristan. Bonnard. L'Amour de l'Art. vol. 2, no. 8, Aug., 1921, p. 243.
1922: Coquiot, Gustave. Bonnard. Paris. 1922, pp. 21, 58.
1923: Werth, Léon. Bonnard. Paris, 1923, pl. 1.
1933: Bulletin des Expositions. Paris, no. 4, 1933, pl. 15.
1939: Special topic section, Bonnard. Le Point: Revue artistique et littéraire. no. 24, 1939, [p.8,] repr.
1941: Annuaire Général des Ventes Publiques en France. vol. 1, 1941-42, no. 414.
1952: Rumpel, Heinrich. Bonnard. Bern, 1952, pp. 11, 14-15, pl. 2.
1953: Art News. vol. 52, no. 1, March, 1953, p. 12, repr.
1958: Martini, Alberto. Gli inizi difficili di Pierre Bonnard. Arte Antica e Moderna. no. 3, July-Sept, 1958, p. 261, pl. 96b.
1958: Sammlung Emil G. Bührle: Festschrift zu Ehren von Emil G. Bührle zur Eröffnung des Kunsthaus-Neubaus und Katalog der Sammlung Emil G. Bührle. Kunsthaus Zürich, 7. Juni - Ende September 1958, p. 145, no. 257 (cited in literature).
1965: Dauberville, Jean and Henry. Bonnard: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. vol. 1 (1888-1905), Paris, 1965, p. 100, no. 24, repr.
1967: Terrasse, Antoine. Pierre Bonnard. Paris, 1967, pp. 26, 28, repr.
1969: Fermigier, André. Pierre Bonnard. Tokyo, 1969, pp. 12, repr. (Japanese)
1969: Fermigier, André. Pierre Bonnard. New York, 1969, pp. 12, 18, repr.
1976: Perucchi-Petri, Ursula. Die Nabis und Japan: Das Frühwerk von Bonnard, Vuillard und Denis. München, 1976, p. 47, fig. 10.
1984: Fermigier, André. Pierre Bonnard. Concise ed., New York, 1984, pp. 10, 16, repr.
1989: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1989 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 98, repr.
1990: Catalogue of painting acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 16-18, repr.
1990: Mayekawa, Seiro. Japonismus: Kunst der >Kristallisation<. Blik nach Westen: Die Aufsätze und Vorträge in Deutscher Sprache.(Nürnberg). 1990, pp. 91-92, repr.
1990: Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 21-22 (1986-87), 1990, Takahashi, Akiya. New Acquisitions 1986-87. pp. 14-15, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions 1986-87. pp. 30-32, repr.
1993: Nabis: 1888-1900 (exh. cat.). Munich, Prestel-Verlag, 1993, p. 115, cat. no. 5, col. repr.
1997: Bonnard Ten: Botsugo 50nen (exh. cat.). Kurita, Hidenori; Fujishima, Mina; Miyazawa, Masao, eds. [Nagoya], Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 1997, pp. 46-47, cat. no. 5, repr.
2006: Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde(exh.cat.). A. Rabinow, Rebecca. et al., eds. New York; New Haven; London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2006, cat. no. 7, fig. 102, col. repr.
2007: De Cézanne à Picasso: chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard(exh.cat.). Roquebert, Anne et al., eds. Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Réunion des Musées nationaux, 2007, cat. no. 4, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 109, col. repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 109, col. repr.
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir (exh. cat.). Marks-Hanssen, Beate, ed. Bonn, Bundeskunsthalle, 2015, pp. 181, 247, cat. no. 110, col. repr.

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