The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

The Violet Fence

The Violet Fence

c. 1923
(French, 1867–1947)
Sheet: 9.9 x 15 cm (3 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.)
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Vernon, the village where Pierre Bonnard made this drawing, is near Giverny, where Claude Monet spent much of his career, and the two artists became friends while living and working in close proximity.

Description

This drawing relates to a painting of the same title, part of a large group of sketches and canvases that Pierre Bonnard created while living in the small French town of Vernon. The artist purchased a home there in 1912 and drew inspiration from a dense garden that grew nearby. In this sheet, Bonnard experimented with recording the picket fence for which the final painting was named, translating the landscape using jagged, sketchy lines that he later realized as loose and expressive brushstrokes with vivid color.
  • ?-?
    Charles Terrasse, Paris
    ?-2020
    Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH
    2020-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=The Violet Fence|url=false|author=Pierre Bonnard|year=c. 1923|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.125