Ambroise Vollard Portrait

Painted in 1904 and held at the Kunsthaus Zürich, this is the third version of Bonnard's portrait of Ambroise Vollard from the same year, confirming the sitter's significance to Bonnard. The Zürich Kunsthaus is one of the major European repositories of modern French art, and its Bonnard holding places this portrait in a canonical European context. That Bonnard painted Vollard three times in a single year reflects both the depth of their professional relationship and possibly the dealer's commission of multiple versions for sale or gift. Each version offers slightly different compositional solutions to the challenge of presenting this heavy, imposing, yet subtle figure.

As with the other Vollard portraits, the handling balances directness of characterisation with Bonnard's characteristic chromatic warmth. The Zürich version may differ in composition or tonal approach from the Orsay and Bührle versions, but shares the basic intimist register applied to a formal portrait commission.