Page 46 - Studio International - November 1966

Starting from Bonnard

As the London season grinds slowly into gear, one is Patrick Heron remarks in his introduction to the cata-
faced with the usual disorganized mass of exhibitions. By logue. But really I am just using this large show, which is
a happy accident, two shows link up. One is the exhibi- obviously an event, as a preface to talking about some-
tion of drawings, water colours and gouaches by thing which might more easily be overlooked. The
Bonnard, at the VICTOR WADDINGTON GALLERY; the illustrations to Le Petit Solfège were Bonnard's first com-
other is the show of Bonnard's illustrations for Le Petit mission for book-illustration. They date from 1893. They
Solfège Illustré now at ANTHONY D'OFFAY, just down the have a sly wit—an urban chic and stylishness which tends
road. to get lost in the opulence of his later work. Bonnard,
Currently Bonnard is fashionable—intellectually fashion- here, is still a dandy. He is also an artist struggling with a
able, as well as financially so. He has been promoted to debased tradition. In one sense, the illustrations are
equal place with Matisse as one of the founders of highly successful; in another, we see how constricting was
modernism. Certainly, the drawings reveal a prodigious the visual convention of the day. Beardsley was to use a
gift. Mr Waddington is exhibiting material which, for very similar distribution of masses and type areas in the
the most part, has never been seen before. For the first books which he illustrated at the same period. There is, I
time we can make an estimate of Bonnard the draughts- think, something fussy and arty about the whole thing.
man, as well as of Bonnard the painter. These small scraps The way text and illustrations are linked together
of paper show an astonishing largeness of scale, as reminds one of Persian manuscripts. Quite certainly,
Pierre Bonnard
Le jardin de Vernon 1920
Pen and ink and pencil
9 3/4 x 12 1/2 in.