Free shipping on orders over $60$5 flat rate under $604 items: 10% off · 8 items: 20% off
You save $79.47
Free shipping over $60 · 30-day returns · Dispatched in 1–2 business days
Nothing softens an entryway like a painted surface. Girl Playing with a Dog (Vivette Terrasse) by Pierre Bonnard arrives as a hand painted oil painting on canvas, offering the wildlife detail, soft gradients, and tactile finish that wildlife oil painting shoppers look for.
JEUNE FILLE JOUANT AVEC UN CHIEN (VIVETTE TERRASSE)
1913
Oil on canvas
29 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.
Private Collection.
Bonnard's niece, Vivette Terrasse, appears in the garden of the family home at Grand-Lemps. Seen in full figure with basket in hand, she runs along a path with a scampering dog beside. Pressed close to the picture plane, with paws and feet touching the painting's lower edge, they appear poised to leap into our space, while the garden with its fountain and foliage stretches away behind them. Conflating the genres of portraiture and landscape, this work weds the two trajectories of Bonnard's work in the teens - society portraits and modern idylls.
This is one of the many occasions in which Bonnard took his ancestral home in the Dauphiné as his subject. It was here that he would spend several weeks each spring in the company of his sister Andrée, her husband the composer Claude Terrasse, and their three children. It is possible that Vivette appears as one of the younger children in foreground of La Famille au jardin (Grand-Lemps), circa 1901 (see fig. 1). In that large composition Claude Terrasse sits cross-legged at left seemingly presiding over the domestic bliss around him replete with numerous children, pets and visitors.
The conflation of portraiture and the leisure activities of the bourgeoisie in the present work and its precedent recalls Impressionist concerns. Indeed, Bonnard's work from 1900-1914 has been described as belated Impressionism. Writing of his engagement with the concerns of the artistic movement several decades after its inception, Bonnard stated: "When my friends and I decided to pick up the research of the Impressionists, and to attempt to take it further, we wanted to outshine them in their naturalistic impressions of color. Art is not nature. We were stricter in composition. There was a lot more to be got out of color as a means of expression" (quoted by Timothy Hyman, Bonnard, London, 1998, p. 65). Jeune fille jouant avec un chien (Vivette Terrasse) exemplifies the method by which Bonnard sought to take color further. The high-keyed color of the canvas is the result of the white underpainting upon which the work was executed. Intense sunlight appears to glisten on Vivette's shoulders and the dog's back, while the garden path and vegetation shimmer. Bonnard's quick, visible brushwork likewise infuses the canvas with vibrant movement.
Both the subject of this work and its execution point to Bonnard's high regard for Renoir at this time (see fig. 2). Describing his influence as "that of a rather severe father", Bonnard wrote that he admired Renoir's ability "to project, even upon the model and lighting somewhat lacking in luster, his recollections of more joyous times. He created a magnificent universe for himself" (quoted in Hyman, op. cit., p. 67). Likewise, Jeune fille jouant avec un chien (Vivette Terrasse) attests to Bonnard's claim that "Art is not nature" and projects an image even more exuberant than the subject which he painted.
As entryway wall decor, the piece pairs naturally with other post-impressionist wall art and with warm neutrals, timber, and soft natural light.
Materials matter for post-impressionist wall decor. That is why this piece is built on artist-grade canvas with lightfast oil colors, applied by hand rather than output from a printer, and sealed for long-term display.
Style it over a fireplace, behind a reading chair, or along a staircase. Wherever it goes, this post-impressionist oil painting wall decor adds the layered color that only a hand painted canvas provides.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 20 in | $79.48 |
| 24 X 24 in | $91.48 |
| 30 X 30 in | $132.48 |
| 36 X 36 in | $199.98 |
| 40 X 40 in | $240.98 |
| 48 X 48 in | $322.98 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
Free on orders over $60; a flat $5 below that. Dispatched in 1–2 business days; 30 days to send it back. Full policy.
Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
