Pierre Bonnard
Boats in the Evening, Cannes1924

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Oil painting of two moored fishing boats with crimson hulls and turquoise trim in a harbor, loose Post-Impressionist brushwork, signed 'Bonnard'

Artist or Maker: Pierre Bonnard
France, Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1867-1947
Title: Boats in the Evening, Cannes
Culture: French
Date Made: 1924
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 24 × 23 5/8 in. (60.96 × 60 cm) Frame: 29 1/4 × 29 1/2 × 2 3/8 in. (74.3 × 74.93 × 6.03 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.7
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: While images of boats and the sea pepper Bonnard’s sketchbooks and paintings, they are exceptions in an oeuvre largely focused on domestic interiors. Boats in the Evening, Cannes is one such work, painted before the artist permanently moved from Paris to the south of France in 1926. In its simplicity, it serves as a vehicle for the quotidian observations captured in his daily journal. Outlines of his graphite sketch are still visible through the paint. The rigid lines of the masts, the nearly indistinguishable shapes of the boats, and the tilted perspective, which recalls the Japanese prints that Bonnard and his colleagues so admired, announce the flatness that he explored throughout his career. The almost square canvas would have been custom-made for this image.

Bonnard loathed the fixed dimensions of a canvas. Instead, he pinned his ground to the wall so that “I can modify it as I wish. . . . This method is particularly suitable for landscapes [where] certain areas of the composition have to be allotted to land and sky, to foliage and water, and one can’t always decide on the proportions between these elements when one begins work.” The cropping of the picture and the distinct horizontal and vertical lines, emphasized by his use of blue, contrast markedly with the subtle gradations of color in sea and sky. The transformation of magentas and golds into cerulean and peach is a testament to the artist’s keen observational skills.

2024
Provenance: The artist, sold 1924 to; [Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris]. Anna Loewy (Löwy?). John L. Sweeney (1906–1986), New Jersey, sold 28 May 1936 to; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold 12 April 1939 to];(1) [Roland Balay (1902–2004)].(2) Diane Esmond (1910–1981), Paris.(3) Private Collector, Paris (sale, London, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 30 June 1976, lot 36, bought-in).(4) (Sale, London, Christie’s, 30 November 1981, lot 19). (Sale, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 18 May 1983, lot 66). (Sale, New York, Christie’s, 16 May 1984, lot 35, to); A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) Stock no. A-1692, see M. Knoedler & Co., London Painting stockbook 5: A1-A2005, 1928 January–1938 May, p. 11, no. A.1692, “Returned by J.L. Sweeney. from NY to L[ondon] 28.5.36. from L[ondon] to N.Y. 11/9/36. Sold to Roland Balay 12 April 1939.” The poet, writer, and editor John L. Sweeney was the brother of James Johnson Sweeney (1900–1986), former head of the Museum of Modern Art.
(2) Balay was the grandson of Michael Knoedler and the last of the family branch to manage the company. He was the president of Knoedler & Company in the mid-1950s through his retirement in 1976.

(3) At least some of the property belonging to Diane Esmond’s father, Édouard Esmond, was seized in Paris in October–November 1940, when the Einstazstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) moved their operations into Édouard Esmond’s apartment on avenue d’Iéna. Additional property identified as belonging to Diane Esmond was taken in at the Jeu de Paume in 1941 and 1943. However, this painting was not found in Le Répertoire des biens spoliés, the Jeu de Paume lists, or the Munich Central Collecting Point database.

(4) Esmond is possibly the consignor referred to, but Sotheby’s will not disclose the seller’s name.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.
Copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris, photo © Fredrik Nilsen

Pierre Bonnard
Boats in the Evening, Cannes1924

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Pierre Bonnard
France, Fontenay-aux-Roses, 1867-1947
Title: Boats in the Evening, Cannes
Culture: French
Date Made: 1924
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 24 × 23 5/8 in. (60.96 × 60 cm) Frame: 29 1/4 × 29 1/2 × 2 3/8 in. (74.3 × 74.93 × 6.03 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of A. Jerrold Perenchio
Accession Number: M.2025.64.7
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: While images of boats and the sea pepper Bonnard’s sketchbooks and paintings, they are exceptions in an oeuvre largely focused on domestic interiors. Boats in the Evening, Cannes is one such work, painted before the artist permanently moved from Paris to the south of France in 1926. In its simplicity, it serves as a vehicle for the quotidian observations captured in his daily journal. Outlines of his graphite sketch are still visible through the paint. The rigid lines of the masts, the nearly indistinguishable shapes of the boats, and the tilted perspective, which recalls the Japanese prints that Bonnard and his colleagues so admired, announce the flatness that he explored throughout his career. The almost square canvas would have been custom-made for this image.

Bonnard loathed the fixed dimensions of a canvas. Instead, he pinned his ground to the wall so that “I can modify it as I wish. . . . This method is particularly suitable for landscapes [where] certain areas of the composition have to be allotted to land and sky, to foliage and water, and one can’t always decide on the proportions between these elements when one begins work.” The cropping of the picture and the distinct horizontal and vertical lines, emphasized by his use of blue, contrast markedly with the subtle gradations of color in sea and sky. The transformation of magentas and golds into cerulean and peach is a testament to the artist’s keen observational skills.

2024
Provenance: The artist, sold 1924 to; [Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris]. Anna Loewy (Löwy?). John L. Sweeney (1906–1986), New Jersey, sold 28 May 1936 to; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold 12 April 1939 to];(1) [Roland Balay (1902–2004)].(2) Diane Esmond (1910–1981), Paris.(3) Private Collector, Paris (sale, London, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 30 June 1976, lot 36, bought-in).(4) (Sale, London, Christie’s, 30 November 1981, lot 19). (Sale, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 18 May 1983, lot 66). (Sale, New York, Christie’s, 16 May 1984, lot 35, to); A. J. Perenchio (1930–2017), Los Angeles, gifted 2025 to; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Footnotes
(1) Stock no. A-1692, see M. Knoedler & Co., London Painting stockbook 5: A1-A2005, 1928 January–1938 May, p. 11, no. A.1692, “Returned by J.L. Sweeney. from NY to L[ondon] 28.5.36. from L[ondon] to N.Y. 11/9/36. Sold to Roland Balay 12 April 1939.” The poet, writer, and editor John L. Sweeney was the brother of James Johnson Sweeney (1900–1986), former head of the Museum of Modern Art.
(2) Balay was the grandson of Michael Knoedler and the last of the family branch to manage the company. He was the president of Knoedler & Company in the mid-1950s through his retirement in 1976.

(3) At least some of the property belonging to Diane Esmond’s father, Édouard Esmond, was seized in Paris in October–November 1940, when the Einstazstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) moved their operations into Édouard Esmond’s apartment on avenue d’Iéna. Additional property identified as belonging to Diane Esmond was taken in at the Jeu de Paume in 1941 and 1943. However, this painting was not found in Le Répertoire des biens spoliés, the Jeu de Paume lists, or the Munich Central Collecting Point database.

(4) Esmond is possibly the consignor referred to, but Sotheby’s will not disclose the seller’s name.
Selected Bibliography: Lehmbeck, Leah, ed. Impressionist and Modern Art: The A. Jerrold Perenchio Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.