Scène de rues

Scène de rues from 1894 at the Fondation Bemberg is one of Bonnard's early street scenes — subjects that attracted him throughout his career as alternatives to the enclosed domestic interior that dominated his intimist practice. The street was a contested subject for the Nabis: Vuillard preferred the claustrophobic domestic interior and avoided the public world almost entirely, while Bonnard moved more freely between inside and outside, finding in the Parisian street the same patterns of colour and movement that he found in the garden or dining room. His 1894 street scenes derive directly from the graphic liveliness of his contemporary poster and print work — the pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles are treated as graphic elements, their forms flattened and rhythmically arranged in the manner of the Japanese woodblock prints that were transforming how French artists understood visual organisation. The Fondation Bemberg's holding of this early street scene alongside other Bonnard works from the period provides a comprehensive view of his subjects during the most fertile phase of his Nabis engagement.

Bonnard treats the street as a flat field of pattern — pedestrians as dark shapes against pale pavement, architectural surfaces providing geometric structure. His early street scenes borrow the graphic economy of his poster work, with figures rendered as pattern elements rather than individuated presences.