Grape Harvest

Painted in 1926 and held at the Phillips Collection, this harvest scene connects Bonnard's domestic garden subjects to the agricultural landscape of the French South. The grape harvest in particular had long associations with abundance, communal labour, and the specific late-summer chromatic world of ripening fruit and golden light. By the mid-1920s Bonnard was regularly between Le Cannet and Vernonnet, and the seasonal round of harvest became available as subject material. The Phillips Collection's holding situates this seasonal landscape within the broader context of his domestic and garden work.

The grape harvest creates a subject of warm chromatic richness: deep green-blue vineyard foliage, dark purple grape clusters, the warm ochre and amber of late summer landscape. The figures of harvesters are integrated into the agricultural environment with the same visual democracy Bonnard brought to domestic subjects.