Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Paris (acquired before 1970)

Jean & Henry Dauberville, Bonnard, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1906-1919, Paris, 1968, vol. II, no. 461, illustrated p. 84

The canvas is not lined. There is a 4cm. diagonal line of retouching below the centre of the upper edge and a 0.5cm. thin line of retouching in the upper right quadrant, both visible under UV light. Apart from some undulations to the canvas, this work is in good condition. Colours: The colours are much richer and deeper, and there is less blue and more red in the original.
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During the first decade of the twentieth century Bonnard painted a number of 'Parisian landscapes' which capture with vital energy and experience of the modern metropolis. The Place and Boulevard Clichy, with its bustling market and diverse clientele, afforded Bonnard a great variety of dynamic scenes and it is for this reason that the location appears several times in his paintings of this period. In the present example, Bonnard is the archetypal flâneur☂; placing himself amid the crowd, he observes the movements of his anonymous companions.

Painted with characteristic verve, the present work demonstrates the immediacy of the artist's hand. The broad, dry brushstrokes create a sense of dynamism, whilst emphasising the flatness of the perspective and allowing the canvas support to permeate the patches of colour. Bonnard delights in recording the play of light across the many figures. The use of bold, black 🥃pigment recalls the cloisonnism of early Gauguin and is a hallmark of Bonnard's Post-Impressionist technique.

Boulevard de Clichy is typical of paintings by Les Nabis, the avant-garde group to which Bonnard was central; it exhibits the artist𓂃's synthesis of an observed reality with an expressive personal symbolism – such non-representational approaches to painting provided a vital source of inspiration for emergent artistic movements, particularly Expressionism and the move towards abstraction.