Evening in Paris

Painted in 1911 and held at the Hermitage Museum, this evening Paris scene completes a paired set with Morning in Paris from the same year. Evening in Paris — artificial street light competing with fading daylight, streets filling with social activity — offered a chromatic challenge quite different from the morning subject: warmer, more varied in light sources, more socially animated. The Hermitage's acquisition of both works for Ivan Morozov's collection demonstrates the enthusiasm of Russian avant-garde collectors for Bonnard's chromatic approach. Evening street light and its warm artificial glow were subjects Bonnard had explored since his earliest urban paintings in the 1890s.

Evening light creates a warm, golden-ochre tonality across the street scene, contrasting with the cooler residual daylight in the sky. Artificial street light pools add variety. The figures and vehicles are rendered with fluid economy, the light effects themselves being the primary subject.