Pierre Bonnard

Woman Indoors Reading a Journal, 1925. Oil on canvas, 57 x 35". Private Collection, New York.

Ambroise Vollard, 1906. Oil on canvas, 29 x 36. Art Museum, Zurich, Switzerland.

Tea in the Garden at Cannet, 1925. Pencil on paper. Private Collection, Paris.

I think this quote sums up Bonnard (1867-1947) so well. He's one of my favorite painters; I'm fascinated with his color combinations, figures, water landscapes and most of all his interior scenes. He was great friends of Vuillard and I can see many similarities in their work.

"The glowing calm and lethargy that impregnate all the work of Bonnard answers to a profound human response, to an interior richness that has no need of mechanical subterfuges, or brilliant or demanding, in order to efface the nothingness of empty time, or in order to be moved by the presence of man." (Raymond Cogniat)

A Glimpse into 1880s Paris...

Edouard Manet. At the Cafe, study of legs. Circa 1880. Watercolor, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 ". Musee du Louvre (Cabinet des Dessins), Paris.

"...Have you noticed how mysteriously pretty women look, at night in carriages? ...They seem to have something shadowy, ghostly, mask-like about them... a veiled look, a voluptuous appearance, things one can guess at and not clearly see, a vague hue, a night smile, with lights falling on their features, all those half-reflections which swim beneath their hats, the great touches of black they have in their eyes, their very skirts, so full of shadows..." (from , Manette Salomon by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt - published in 1866.)

Camille Pissarro

Apple Gatherers, 1891. Gouache on silk on paper, 10 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, 2001.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). French painter, printmaker, and draughtsman, born on St. Thomas in the West Indies, where his parents (a French Jewish father and a Creole mother) ran a prosperous general store. He was educated at boarding school in Paris, but returned to the Caribbean and didn't settle in France until 1855. In 1859 he met Monet, and with him became a central figure of Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist who participated in all 8 Impressionist exhibitions and he was a much-respected father figure to his colleagues - he was about a decade older than most of the other members of the group. He's famous for his genre scenes. By 1895, his eyesight was going and caused him to give up painting out of doors and many of his late works are urban scenes painted from windows in Paris and elsewhere. He's best known for his landscapes and city views, he painted usually from Paris hotels.

He had 5 painter sons, of whom the most important was the eldest, Lucien (1863-1944). He was often overshadowed by his more famous father but he was an important figure in helping to introduce Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism to England. His daughter, Orovida Pissarro (1893-1968), often known simply as 'Orovida', was a painter and etcher , mainly of animal subjects. (Ian Chilvers)

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

A Country Outing, 1882. Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 15 in. Phillip and Janice Levin Collection.

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). French artist, associated with the Impressionists. His later work was to prove vital to the development of poster art. Toulouse-Lautrec was born at Albi (where there is now a museum of his work) in the South of France. He showed an early gift for drawing, to which he turned increasingly after a riding accident at the age of 15 left him with crippled and stunted legs. In 1882 he began to study art in Paris. He admired Goya's etchings and Degas' work, and in the 1880's he met Gauguin and was inspired by Japanese prints. Lautrec became a familiar figure drawing and paintings in the dance halls, theatres, cafes, circuses, and brothels. He often painted with thinned-out oils on cardboard. (Brockhampton)

This particular painting is unusual for Lautrec - he is well known for his works featuring Parisian nightlife. This painting was in his early period and reflected scenes of country life among the wealthy as he was from a privileged background.

Kees van Dongen

Kees van Dongen - The Parisienne, 1904. Oil on cardboard, 16 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation.

(1877-1968). Dutch-born painter and printmaker who settled in Paris in 1897 and took French nationality in 1929. His early work was Impressionist, but he became a member of the Fauves in 1906 and in 1908 exhibited with the German Expressionist group Die Brucke. He had a reputation as a ladies' man, and his work (mainly nudes and female portraits) was often erotic in spirit; in 1913 one of his pictures was removed from the Salon d' Automne by the police on the grounds of alleged indecency. After the first World War he became internationally famous for his paintings of fashionable life, particularly portraits of insolently glamorous women in which he created a type that has been described as 'half drawing-room prostitute, half sidewalk princess.' He kept the brilliant coloring and bold handling of his Fauve days, but his great facility led to repetition and banality and it is generally agreed that his best work was done before 1920. From 1959 he lived in Monaco. (Ian Chilvers)

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Still Life with Crayfish

Detail, 1880-82

Gustave Caillebotte: (1848-94). French painter and collector. He came from a very wealthy family (he was rich enough to build and race yachts as a hobby) and for many years after his death he was remembered primarily for the financial help he gave the Impressionists, by purchasing their paintings and sometimes by direct gifts of money. Since the 1960's, however his own work as a painter has been reassessed and he is now regarded as an artist of considerable, although uneven, achievement. He exhibited at 5 of the 8 Impressionist exhibitions, concentrating on scenes from everyday life. The most striking feature of his work is his liking for unusual viewpoints and bold perspective effects.

On his death Caillebotte bequeathed his collections of 67 pictures to the State. Against the opposition of various academic artists representing the taste of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the official Salon, 38 of the pictures were accepted after much wrangling and formed the nucleus of the Impressionist collection of the Luxembourg Museum (now the Musee d'Orsay, Paris) (Ian Chilvers)

Raoul Dufy

Pesage - weighing in at the Deauville trial

Aux Courses - a scene at Auteuil

Le Depart - the Grand Prix, Longchamps

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). French painter, graphic artist, and designer. His early work was Impressionist in style but he became a convert to Fauvism in 1905 after seeing a Matisse show. He exhibited with the Fauves in 1906 and 1907, but in 1908 he worked with Braque at L'Estaque and abandoned Fauvism for a more sober style influenced by Cezanne. He soon returned to a lighter style and in the next few years developed his most known style. It is characterized, in oils and watercolors, by rapid calligraphic drawing on backgrounds of bright, thinly washed color and was well suited to the scenes of luxury and pleasure Dufy favored. He worked with fashion designer Paul Poiret and did some textile design for a silk factory in Lyon as well. In 1952 he was awarded the main painting prize at the Venice Biennale. His popularity has continued undiminished since his death. (Ian Chilvers)

Berthe Morisot

In the Wheatfields at Gennevilliers, 1875. Oil on canvas, 18 x 27 in. Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

Young Woman in an Evening Dress. 1879. Oil on canvas, 28 x 33 in. Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

"Real painters understand with a brush in their hand." - Berthe Morisot

"Berthe Morisot - 1841-1895. French Impressionist painter who specialized in sensitive pictures of women and children. She was taught by Corot and was much influenced by Manet and, in thee 1880's, Renoir. She exhibited in most of the Impressionist shows. She was the granddaughter of the artist Fragonard." (Brockhampton)

Morisot was born into an aristocratic family and took painting lessons as a young lady with her sister, Edma. She excelled at it, but had to hide it as it was not acceptable in Parisian society to be a serious painter, especially a married woman with a child. She was married to Eugene Manet, brother to the famous painter Edouard Manet. They had one daughter, Julie. She did later break out of convention and showed with the Impressionist group and knew success while she was still alive. She died of pneumonia in her 50's before Julie was married.

Snow at Louveciennes

by Alfred Sisley 1878

'Sisley's thick brushstrokes convey the weight and silence of snow in the countryside, its fleeting and changeable shades of white. Sisley's was a reserved, even solitary nature, and these qualities appear in his subdued compositions, peopled by isolated figures.' (Alexandra Bonfante-Warren)

Sisley (1839-1899) was a French Impressionist painter and was known for a light hand in his shades and brush strokes. He studied in Paris and was friends with Renoir and Monet.

"The animation of the canvas is one of the hardest problems in painting... thee artist's impression is the life-giving factor, and only this impression can free that of the spectator." - Alfred Sisley letter

A Promise of Spring

A Bunch of Asparagus 1880, Edouard Manet

This luscious bunch of veg looks so appealing and fresh! I love all the different shades of green and the violet tips, it makes me long for an outdoor market. (Beaverton Farmer's Market in Portland, OR... what a feast for the eyes)

Manet (1832 - 1883) is probably most famous for his painting, Olympia (1865) and Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (1863). Both of these paintings shocked the Paris Salon with such blatant nudity of a woman as she unabashedly gazes at the viewer, instead of purely being gazed at. What was also new about these paintings was she was depicted in scenes that are every day life settings while nude (as opposed to posing in a studio or playing a role/allegory etc.) His brother, Eugene, was married to the formidable Impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot.

'He was a French painter, active in Paris, one of the foremost French artists of the 19Th century. He was born in Paris, trained under a history painter and was inspired by Goya and Velazquez and Courbet. He never exhibited with the Impressionists, although he was associated with them from the 1870's.' (Brockhampton)