The Family of Claude Terrasse

Painted in 1899 and held at the Metropolitan Museum, this group portrait of the Terrasse family — Bonnard's brother-in-law Claude Terrasse, a musician and composer, with his wife and children — belongs to the intimate family documentation that characterises Bonnard's early work. Claude Terrasse was an important presence in Bonnard's early career; they collaborated on the illustrated album Petit Solfège illustré (1893) and remained close throughout their lives. Family gatherings, domesticity, and the overlapping social world of music and art provided Bonnard with a subject that combines portraiture and genre. By 1899 his Nabi period was giving way to a more relaxed, Impressionist-inflected handling.

The group is arranged informally, figures overlapping in a casual domestic composition. The palette of warm greens, ochres, and soft blues suggests outdoor or garden light. The brushwork is more open and Impressionist in touch than the early Nabi flatness.