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Paysage du
Midi
Roger-Marx 82;
Bouvet 95
lithograph, 1925, on
medium-heavy laid paper with the TM watermark, the 3rd state (of 4), a
very fine impression (the
imprint of the stone quite apparent), signed
in pencil by the artist,
with full margins, deckle edges to the left and below, one of only a
few trial proofs of this state before the deluxe album edition of 25,
with Frapier's Galerie des
Peintres-Graveurs blindstamp, Galerie (Lugt 1057b), lower right,
as well as his SE ("essai") and third state
wetstamps (L. 2921b & 2921e), lower left corner*, slight foxing in
the margins, otherwise in excellent overall condition
L. 220x320 mm., S.
320x495 mm.
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Commissioned by Edmond
Frapier for his album, Maîtres et petits maîtres
d'aujourd'hui, this important lithograph is Bonnard's only
landscape in the series
that he produced for the publisher in the early 1920s.
Bonnard having recently moved
to the south of France, at Le Cannet, his enchantment by the
ever-changing landscapes was a constant source of inspiration:
«
Dans mes promenades du matin je m'amuse à définir les différentes
conceptions de paysages, paysage "espace", paysage intime, paysage
décoratif, etc. Mais comme vision je vois chaque jour des choses
différentes, le ciel, les objets, tout change continuellement, on peut
se noyer là-dedans. Mais cela fait vivre. »
"In my morning walks, I entertain myself by defining the different
conceptions of landscapes, 'space' landscape, intimate landscape,
decorative, landscape, etc. But as vision I daily see different
things, the sky, the objects, everything changes continually, one might
drown in it. But it gives life..."
- Pierre Bonnard (excerpt from a letter to Matisse, late February 1940)
* The reversed 3s designate the 3rd state, and the imbricated S and E denote an "essai" or trial proof: 
