Pierre Bonnard. Pierre Bonnard was a French painter, illustrator, and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color.
He was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis, and his early work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, and the prints of Hokusai and other Japanese artists. He was a leading figure in the transition from impressionism to modernism.
He painted landscapes, urban scenes, portraits and intimate domestic scenes, where the backgrounds, colors and painting style usually took precedence over the subject. Pierre Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, Hauts-de-Seine on 3 October 1867.
His mother, Élisabeth Mertzdorff, was from Alsace. His father, Eugène Bonnard, was from the Dauphiné, and was a senior official in the French Ministry of War.
He had a brother, Charles, and a sister, Andrée, who in 1890 married the composer Claude Terrasse. He received his education in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée Charlemagne in Vanves. He showed a talent for drawing and water colors, as well as caricatures. He painted frequently in the gardens of his parent's country home at Grand-Lemps near the Cote Saint-André in the Dauphiné. He also showed a strong interest in literature. He received his baccalaureate in the classics, and, to satisfy his father, between 1886-87 earned his l