Page 64 - Studio International - July 1966

Bonnard : the act of re-creation

by Norbert Lynton
We have had the exhibition, together with a impenetrable one: what is it that makes a nard's art is not for the masses,' nor for our
general pulling out and polishing up of avail- Matisse or a Bonnard a visual delight and an nasty, noisy world; it belongs to a delicate
able Bonnards around the galleries; we have emotional encounter, whereas a very similar world that is no more and we cannot expect
had a good deal of critical commentary and work by A, B, or c is visual and emotional cold modern people to appreciate him, except for
journalistic reportage; now we have one of porridge ? one or two choice spirits (such as ourselves).
those expensive books in which the twentieth Under the circumstances we clutch at every `Must we also,' Cassou mutters sadly, 'give up
century enshrines its art heroes.* This is un- straw. Matisse, with his acute and trained our love of gardens?' The answer is: Only if
doubtedly Bonnard's year and we may reckon intelligence, could come out with statements you prefer giving up gardens to loving them.
we have done him proud—except that we still that truly illuminate his art and art in Having fingered all the contacts with Bon-
do not seem to be able to put our collective general. In comparison, Bonnard remains nard that the text has to offer, we are left
finger on what makes him such a special silent. Mme Vaillant describes him, in his with his pictures. Here the book cannot help
painter. Nabi days, listening to his friends' wranglings us much. It does show us some of his book
To Mme Vaillant, novelist and critic and and, pressed for his opinion, saying no more illustrations as well as other not too familiar
author of the new monograph, Bonnard is 'the than 'I disagree entirely'. She quotes other graphic works. As always there are reproduc-
greatest painter of the twentieth century'. It comments: 'A painter should judge as a tions of paintings in half-tone and colour. The
must be nice to see things as clearly as that. milliner judges the hat she makes... Renoir latter rather exaggerate the weight and lush-
Generally, though, we assume that there is was above all a painter of Renoirs ... To begin
wide agreement on his stature. Yet there are a picture, there must be an empty space in the
people who continue to see his colour as sweet, centre... The presence of the object disturbs
his drawing as spineless and his range of the artist.' After teaching and advising a
subject-matter as mindless and self-indulgent. student: 'I won't do it again. I never know
Perhaps we shall never be able to convert which of us is right.' On yellow: 'One cannot
them to any other view, but we should at have too much.' But put all the Bonnard
least try. Among ourselves we could become quotations you can find together and they
rather more specific about what we honour still add up to something very like silence.
and love him for. Turn to his relationships with other painters
It is not long ago that it was possible to write and they are also, in this sense, inaudible. We
a history of modern painting and ignore him know he admired the aged Monet, and visited
altogether, or merely mention him in his first him repeatedly in Giverny to look, presum-
aspect as one of the Nabis, helping to turn ably, at the painter's as well as at nature's
pictures into flattish decorative patterns and water-lilies, and we know that Bonnard was
thus helping to divorce art from natural on exceptionally close terms with Matisse.
appearances. We may raise our eyebrows at Such relationships should be very revealing,
this, but what is the historian of tomorrow to but we lack the information with which to
say about him? Or do we have here the excep- prise them open. Like many of his paintings,
tional (but not entirely unique) phenomenon Bonnard's biography presents matter for slow Bonnard photographed by Alfred Natanson
of an artist we call great not playing a notice- and parsimonious tasting, rather than effi- (Alfred Althis) c,1892
able role on the stage of history? cient documentation.
The difficulties are enormous. All art resists Because of this Mme Vaillant's method is the
final elucidation. Some kinds of art offer right one. In another instance it would be
resistance much earlier than others, and the downright offensive to be so chatted at. In the
last twenty years have seen us becoming more case of Bonnard we find ourselves grateful to
and more involved in just these kinds (Matisse, be told that, according to an old servant, 'M.
various forms of Hard Edge painting, Albers, Pierre didn't mind what he ate'.
etc.). They share a disregard for theories and Annette Vaillant grew up in the Bonnard
dogma, do not stand out in any obvious sense circle and is able to speak of him and to quote
as revolutionary, and depend for their con- him from personal recollection and from that
tinuing life on the public's sensitivity to line of her relatives. At the back of the book are
and colour and not on the persisting interest comments by Hans R. Hahnloser on Bon-
of any doctrine. They do not demolish the nards formerly in the Hahnloser collection;
past; they demolish by implication all art here too we find precious nuggets of informa-
lacking in sensibility. They often seem essen- tion, such as an account of Bonnard's abor-
tially private. Such works do not condense tive attempt, in 1932, at doing water-colours.
into verbally transmittable ideas. In so far as The original (Swiss) publishers appear to have
they sport ideas through subject matter, these considered the book too unprofessional and
tend to be platitudinous: girls are desirable, decided to improve its image by prefacing it
sunshine is benign, fruit is good for us. They with a dialogue between two well-known
do not pose problems—except the ultimate and writers on art: MM. Jean Cassou and Ray-
mond Cogniat. The French appear to have a
*Bonnard by Annette Vaillant, 230 pages, 53 col- particular gift for raising thick fog with a few
our plates, 92 monochrome plates, 6 colour line
drawings, 73 in black, published by Thames & sentences. Moreover, this dialogue culminates
Hudson, London, £8 8s. in an insufferable piece of snobbery : 'Bon-