The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 31, 2026

A vertically oriented oil painting depicts a woman with medium-light skin tone standing and facing our left. She holds a small yellow cup and saucer in both hands. Her dress features a plaid pattern of orange, green, and purple bands. To our left is a pale doorway, and a patterned curtain hangs to our right. Dappled brushstrokes in warm and muted colors create a textured, shimmering surface across the entire composition.

The Plaid Dress

1926

Pierre Bonnard

(French, 1867–1947)
France
oil on canvas
Unframed: 77.2 x 46.4 cm (30 3/8 x 18 1/4 in.)
Gift of Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley 2026.1
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Did You Know?

Plaid dresses were extremely fashionable in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Paris.

Description

This painting depicts the artist’s wife Marthe holding a yellow cup and saucer as she walks toward a door leading to a sunlit terrace. The profusion of patterns and close color harmonies of Marthe’s plaid dress and the wallpaper behind her make it initially difficult to discern the woman from her surroundings. Bonnard treated everything—whether human or inanimate—with equal importance in his work of this period. The artist said that he wished “to show what one sees on first entering a room, what the eye takes in at one glance; one sees everything, and at the same time nothing.”
  • 1928
    (Galerie L'Art Moderne, Lucerne, Switzerland, sold to Galerie Berheim-Jeune, Paris, France)
    1928–1930
    (Galerie Berheim-Jeune, Paris, France, sold to Edith Halpert)
    1930
    (Edith Halpert [1900-1970], Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, September 21, 1930, sold to Abigail Greene Aldrich (Mrs. John D.) Rockefeller, Jr.
    1930–1937
    Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. [1874–1948], New York, NY, given to her son, Laurence S. Rockefeller
    1937–1999
    Laurence S. Rockefeller [1910–2004], New York, NY, given to New York Fine Art Support Trust
    1999
    (Sotheby's, New York, NY Fine Arts Support Trust sale, November 11, 1999, lot 131, (bought in))
    after November 11, 1999–before June 2000
    (Sotheby's New York, NY, sold to Richard Feigen & Co., NY)
    2000
    (Richard Feigen & Co. New York, NY, June 2000, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley)
    2020
    Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, promised gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 According to the 1999 Sotheby's, New York, sale catalogue. Galerie l'Art Moderne was a branch of the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune.
    2 According to Jean Dauberville and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard: Catalogue Raisonné De L'œuvre Peint (Paris, 1966), vol. III, p. 290, cat. no. 1357.
    3 Edith Halpert established the Downtown Gallery in 1926 (initially called Our Gallery until 1927), dedicated exclusively to contemporary American art by living artists. This painting was included in a list of artworks sold by the Downtown Gallery to Mrs. John D. Rockefeller. See: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C.; Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969; Series 4: Business Records; Reel 5635, Frames 6-101: Clients, Individuals, vol. 13: R, 1927-1975; Frame 37.
    4 According to the 1999 Sotheby's, New York, sale catalogue.
    5 According to documentation supplied by Richard Feigen and Co., New York, in the curatorial file.
  • Exposition Bonnard: œuvres récentes du mercredi 24 Novembre au vendredi 17 Decembre 1926. Paris: MM. Bernheim-Jeune, 1926. Mentioned: no. 4
    Cassou, Jean. "Le Lyrisme de Bonnard." Formes, no. 9 (1930): 4-5. Reproduced: fig. 8
    Barr, Alfred H. Modern Works of Art. New York, NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 1934. Mentioned: P. 26, no. 42
    Wheeler, Monroe. 20th Century Portraits. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1942. Reproduced: P. 44; Mentioned: P. 134
    "La vie française" an exhibition of paintings chiefly by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, Oct. 6-Nov. 11, 1944. Institute of Modern Art (Boston, Mass.). 1944. Mentioned: P. 1, no. 7
    Rewald, John. Bonnard.New York, NY: Published by A. Carman for the Museum of Modern Art, 1948. Reproduced: P. 111, no. 57; mentioned: P. 140, no. 157
    Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.). A Special Exhibition of Paintings by American and French Modern Masters: For the Benefit of the La Napoule Art Foundation ... May 4th Through May 28th, 1955. New York: Wildenstein, 1955. Mentioned: French Artists no. 2
    Dauberville, Jean, and Henry Dauberville. Bonnard, catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Paris, France: J. et H. Bernheim, 1966. Mentioned and reproduced: Vol. III, p. 290, no. 1357
    Chapin, Mary Weaver. "Pierre Bonnard." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 102-127. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 124-125; Mentioned: p. 254-257
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Modern Works of Art - Fifth Anniversary Exhibition. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (November 20,1934-January 20,1935).
    Pierre Bonnard, Memorial Exhibition. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland,OH (1948); Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (May 10-September 6,1948).
    French and American Art. Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY (1955).
    The Artist's Family. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1952).
    Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. Institute of Modern Art, Boston, MA (1944).
    20th Century Portraits. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1942-1943).
    Summer Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1933).
    Bonnard Oeuvres recents. Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, France (1926).
  • {{cite web|title=The Plaid Dress|url=false|author=Pierre Bonnard|year=1926|access-date=31 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2026.1