Vue sur Antibes

Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and a founding member of Les Nabis, the group of post-Impressionist artists in Paris in the 1890s who took their name from the Hebrew word for "prophets." He spent his later career between Paris and the south of France, particularly around Le Cannet, painting interiors, gardens, nudes, and landscapes in saturated, dreamy color. He was famous for working from memory and notes rather than from life, building his canvases slowly over weeks or months. Vue sur Antibes is a view of the Mediterranean town from a garden — a pale gray-pink tree and a heavier dark green tree stand at center, with a low stone wall, a glimpse of blue-green sea, and the buildings of Antibes in the distance at right. The foreground is a loose field of yellow-green grass with red and brown marks suggesting fallen leaves or branches. The brushwork is fast and the canvas weave shows through everywhere.