In April 1892, the critic Charles Saunier wrote in the journal La Revue indépendante that: ‘M. Bonnard, the most Japanese of all French painters, likes to render the subtleties of lines, to find surprising rhythms in their arabesques. Here we have a garden, at twilight, where figures dressed in light shades stand out against a complex network of trees and plants’. Saunier was describing this painting, a spectacular depiction of summertime play at the Bonnard family’s country estate, where Bonnard’s father Eugène, his cousin Berthe, sister Andrée, and brother-in-law Claude Terrasse are shown playing croquet while young women dance on the grass in the background.
Pierre Bonnard
French 1867–1947
Twilight, or The croquet game (Crépuscule, ou La Partie de croquet) 1892
oil on canvas
130.0 × 162.2 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Gift of Daniel Wildenstein through the Society of Friends of the Musée d'Orsay, 1985 (RF 1985 8)
Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
This product is produced in collaboration with Musée d’Orsay and Rmn - Grand Palais, Paris, France
