I caught the bus into Stockholm today in order to see an exhibition on French artist Pierre Bonnard. I’d never heard of him and was intrigued. His work influenced many contemporary artists even though he didn’t really have a style of his own. He was, what I’d call, a bit eclectic.
For his own part, he was largely influenced by Paul Gauguin and, basically, led the charge from Impressionism to Modernism. He belonged to the avant-garde artistic group, Les Nabis. ‘They believed that a work of art was not a depiction of nature, but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist’ – Encyclopædia Britannica. Their styles were also very different from each other. Their common themes were philosophical, rather than artistic.
He worked in different mediums. Oils, lithographs, sketches and even a bit of sculpture. To me, it feels a bit like he wanted to try different things, playing around then moving onto something new. I don’t think it was a case of not being satisfied, I think he was just curious to explore. I understand that completely.
As you can see from the above colour lithograph, he even dabbled in Japanese woodcuts.
The family in the above picture are his sister, Andrée and her husband Claude Terrasse with their newborn son, Jean. The couple feature in a few of his works, including a marvellous collection of small drawings with which he decorated his brother-in-laws sheet music. (Claude was a composer.) They feature lots of small family scenes and days out to fairs, which shine a light on his love of family.
He lived with Marthe de Méligny for 50 years. They started living together in 1893 but didn’t marry until 1925. She was the model in many of his paintings. She was also a painter. She painted as Marthe Solange in order to be judged on her own merits rather than those of Pierre.
The exhibition was called Bonnard och Norden (Bonnard and the Nordics) and told the story of how he influenced the artists of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Particularly the Gothenburg Colourists which included the amazing artist, Ragnar Sandberg.
While there were many works in the exhibition that I loved, it was one by Sandberg that really caught my eye. It’s one of those paintings that intrigues me and keeps me studying it. And I wasn’t alone.
The painting was hanging in a small room and had attracted a group of, what appeared to be, high school students. They were discussing it, seemingly equally fascinated by it. I had to wait for them to leave in order to get a photo of it.
I love the intensity, the barely there quality, the stifling movement. Its mystery.
All round, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition.
And the weather today in Stockholm, was magnificent. Warm enough to ditch the fleece and sunny enough to need my straw hat. Perfect.
Even more perfect was lunch. The ramen at Soyokaze Omakaze was delicious. I hasten to add that I was in the bar and not in the more exclusive restaurant.
I told Mirinda the other day that ramen had finally supplanted pizza as my favourite meal. This one was one of the best I’ve ever had.
It was a perfect day in Stockholm.
