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While the Nabis profoundly revitalized the art of illustration at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) devoted his entire life to it. The Solfège illustré, published in 1893 with the composer Claude Terrasse, marked his first attempt to combine text and drawings. His encounter with the circle of writers and artists who animated the Revue Blanche, which had become the crossroads of all the avant-garde movements in the 1890s, was also decisive. And when, in 1900, the art dealer Ambroise Vollard proposed to Bonnard that he create lithographs for Paul Verlaine’s Parallèlement, the two laid the foundations for what is now considered the first artist’s book.
“Drawing is sensation,” Bonnard wrote in his diaries. The exceptional collection of the painter’s drawings held at the Institut de France, presented here for the first time, reveals his graphic workshop. With an expressive touch, in graphite or pen, he establishes a dialog with the texts and engages with the writers, adapting his art—often imbued with humor—to a wide variety of styles. The evolution of all these publishing projects shows that each one provided Bonnard with an opportunity to profoundly renew his artistic approach.

Text in French.