Landscape, Sunset 1912

Pierre Bonnard’s Landscape, Sunset is an oil on canvas in which hazy strokes of ochre, sienna, and burnt umber clash with and complement the cerulean and emerald shades of the landscape and sky. The whole thing feels softly out of focus, like an impression struggling to surface, each mark laying the ground for a feeling, an intention, a place. I can almost feel Bonnard building up the surface, adding layer upon layer of pigment, trying to match what he sees. It’s so humanizing to see this. Bonnard is one of those artists who is always ‘on’ - always good, even when he’s just puttering around in his studio, trying things out. You see him thinking through color relationships and making the most mundane scenes shimmer with light and feeling. Artists do that for each other: we show the endlessness of the project, the way it goes on and on, because there is always more to see, to explore, to invent!