Having embarked on a law career, he started part time tuition at the Academie Julian in Paris, then abandoned his studies and joined the Nabis, exhibiting his work at the Independants and at Le Barc de Boutteville. He was influenced by Gauguin and by Japanese art, and was especially interested in popular art; he designed posters, book illustrations and stage sets. From 1890 to 1893 he worked with brightly coloured, flat and distinctly outlined shapes, enlivened and adorned with the occasional humorous detail. His early Nabist period was succeeded by a second (1894-1898) during which his palette darkened, form becoming more shaded and the contours blurred and softer. In 1891 he helped found the Revue Blanche and exhibited at Durand-Ruel and Vollard's. In 1895 he was still using clear colours with a hint of stylization (Partie de Crocquet, Corsage d Carreaux, 1892). His Parisian scenes are depicted in greys and sombre shades (La Place Clichy, Le Moulin-Rouge); he also painted many nudes (Nu bleu, L'Indolente; Paris, Musee d'art modeme). He then spent his time between Paris, Marly-Ie-Roi, Dauphine and Provence, and evinced a growing love of the countryside. His links with Renoir between 1890 and 1892 are still apparent, but Bonnard's work really belongs to the 20th century. His colours are
rich and blurred. From 1899 onwards he became one of the foremost Intimist painters. Following his gradual detachment from Nabism, he evolved a more Impressionistic style and became firmly established as one of the strongest personalities in modern art. He visited Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Tunisia and Algeria, working ceaselessly, never satisfied. His works include Breakfast (1932, Petit-Palais) and White Interior (1933, Musee de Grenoble). In 1920 he illustrated, among other books, Gide's Promethee mal en chaine. In 1943 he executed a religious work entitled Saint Francois de Sales visiting the Sick for the church at Assy. His last paintings reveal extraordinarily daring tone contrasts and rich, vital harmonies. He was only concerned with happy subjects. Bonnard stands half-way between Impressionism and Fauvism. Speaking of Bonnard in Du Symbolisme au Classicisme, Maurice Denis wrote: "Bonnard must claim our attention if we are looking for an-example of a painter who has remained faithful to his early artistic principles. His most recent works are persistently and wonderfully youthful. He recreates each scene or object with fresh vision, faithful to his sleepwalker's dream where values turn topsy-turvy, where his own logic, interpenetrated with the irony and tenderness
of a wonder-struck observer, supplants natural logic. When one compares him with other painters gifted with the magic of colour, Bonnard's paintings contain remarkably striking implications. Every pictorial motif has psychological significance."

Post-Impressionism, Michel-Claude Jalard, Edito Service SA, Geneva