Louis Carré, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1942 and sold: Piasa Artcurial, Paris, December 10, 2002, lot 205)
Sale: Christie's, London, June 24, 2003, lot 64
Acquired at the above sale

Colette de Ginestet & Catherine Pouillon, Jacques Villon. Les estampes et les illustrations. Catalogue Raisonné, Paris, 1979, no. E 687, illustration of the lithograph p. 421 
Francis Bouvet, Bonnard, L'Oeuvre gravé. Catalogue complet, Paris, 1981, no. 117, illustrations of the lithograph pp. 10 & 294-95

Work is in good condition. The pigments are bright and fresh. Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. Sheet is hinged to the mount at two points along the upper edge. There are remnants of old framer's tape on verso of upper edge and an artist's pinhole in each corner. There is a slight waviness to the sheet consistent with the artist's technique. There is some shrinkage with associated tiny spots of paint loss visible in the areas of thickest pigment: in the white pigment of center edge and lower center, the tall orange mast and the boats at lower right. There are a couple of horizontal flattened creases in the lower third of the composition and a few tiny tears to the perimeter of the sheet.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Pierre Bonnard began his career not as a fine artist but as an illustrator, designing posters and advertisements to earn his keep. One of his early commissions was to design the front cover of a piano book for a new piece of music, which he excitedly wrote home about: "I have a new job to do for the champagne producer, a title-page for sheet music. It is an advertisement waltz which has just been composed" (in a letter to his mother dated March 13, 1891, quoted in Antoine Terrasse, Pierre Bonnard, Illustrator, London, 1989, p. 12). Toward the end of his career, Bonnard returned once again to the medium of print when Louis Carré approached him to produce a series of lithographs with his friend and fellow artist, Jaques Villon. The partnership proved ideal, with Bonnard composing the gouaches and Villon transferring them onto stones. The result was a suite of eleven lithographs known as the Bonnard-Villon album. The present work was chosen by Bonnard and Villon to be the subject of one of these exclusive prints and the original gouache was given to Louis Carré, the patron and instigator of popular collaboration.

The present work typifies the studied delicacy with which Bonnard painted. The insistent strokes of pink and yellow form a soft mosaic of the sky, full of warmth and shimmer, while the vertical lines of the fishing boat masts jut vertically across the horizon line. It is of little wonder that such a fine composition was one of the limited few chosen by the artist to be reproduced. For Bonnard, the most important goal was to create an appealing aesthetic—a composition in which the viewer or owner would find comfort and pleasure: "painting must above all be decorative. Talent will reveal itself in the way lines are arranged. I do not belong to any schools. I am only trying to do something personal" (Pierre Bonnard, quoted in Jorg Zutter, Pierre Bonnard, Observing Nature, Melbourne, 2003). In the present work, the artist has achieved exactly that, executing every masterful stroke with musical precision and attention to harmony.