Corner of Paris

Corner of Paris, painted in 1905 and now in the Hermitage Museum, shows Pierre Bonnard documenting the street life of Paris with his characteristic Nabi color intensity applied to an urban subject. By 1905 Bonnard had evolved a post-Impressionist style that combined the flat color areas he had learned from Gauguin's Symbolism with a vivid decorative sense rooted in Japanese print-making. Paris street scenes allowed him to observe the passage of figures — women, carriages, children — with the same intimate curiosity he brought to interior domestic subjects. The Hermitage acquired significant Bonnard holdings through the pre-Revolutionary collection of Ivan Morozov.

Oil on canvas with Bonnard's characteristic high-keyed decorative color applied to urban observation — the Paris street rendered in warm oranges, yellows, and blues that transform everyday pavement into an almost tapestry-like surface. Figures move through the composition as color accents rather than individuated personalities.