This is the rare, hand-signed proof before letters. The drawing of a woman admonishing her dog appears only half-finished, with the right side remaining blank, but all the pertinent elements are there: the fashionable veiled hat, the gesture of the gloved hand, and the attentive pose of the pooch. Colta Ives, in the catalogue of the Bonnard exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, speaks of “the softly delineated forms, enhanced with touches of modeling and color” and feels that although he was part of the Nabis group, “his adoption of a more relaxed and lyrically sensuous approach” set him apart from that fraternity (Ives, p. 6). This charming invitation is surely one of the finest and most sensitive lithographs of Bonnard and of the entire Salon des Cent series.
Signed to lower left corner 'P Bonnard'.
literature: (all var but PAI): DFP-II, 79; Salon des Cent, p. 53; Salon des Cent/Neumann, p. 35; Marx, 45; Bouvet, 39; Ives, illus. 19; Posters of Paris, 11; Word & Image, p. 271; PAI-XCIII, 151
This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.