Bonnard recalled how, when in 1890 he saw an exhibition of brightly coloured Japanese woodblock prints, and kakemono (hanging scrolls), ‘I understood immediately ... that colour could express all things without needing modelling or relief. It seemed to me then that it was possible to translate light, form, and character with nothing more than colour’. This painting, depicting the street where Bonnard lived with his grandmother at this time, is a perfect example of Bonnard’s absorption and influence of Japanese art, with its vertical kakemono format and perspective, flat silhouetted forms and strong blocks of colour that unite the disparate elements of the composition.
Pierre Bonnard
French 1867–1947
Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day (Paris, Rue de Parme, le 14 juillet) 1890
oil on canvas
79.2 × 40.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995 (1995.47.2)
Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
