Place Clichy 1922

Pierre Bonnard created ‘Place Clichy’ at an unknown date using crayon and lithography. The scene shimmers into being through strokes of color. I can imagine Bonnard standing there, amidst the hustle, with a sketchbook, trying to capture the mood. It must have been tough—all those people moving, the light shifting! It looks like he’s used the lithographic crayon in quick, almost scribbled lines, to build up the image. The blues and browns give it a kind of hazy, dreamlike quality, like the memory of a busy day rather than a snapshot. See the woman in the foreground, with the dark hat? The lines around her face are so delicate, yet they convey a sense of quiet presence. Bonnard was obsessed with the way light and color could evoke feeling. He wasn't just painting what he saw but what he felt. You see this interest in the work of other artists like Vuillard. These guys were really onto something, this idea of capturing the fleeting moments of everyday life. It reminds us that artists are always in conversation, picking up on each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can do.