When he left the Académie Julian, where he met Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier and Édouard Vuillard, Bonnard was a member of the Nabi movement. He also had what the art historian Jean Leymarie referred to as “creative intuition in the face of nature” a characteristic which he shared with Monet, who was taken up at the time with his series on The Water Lilies. Although Bonnard initially made sketches on the spot, he withdrew from the subject and continued his work in his studio, using an empirical method which gradually gave pictorial form to memories.

This maritime painting, with its intense colours, comes from the collection belonging to Dr Girardin. The handwritten inscription on the back of Conversation is: “St Germain Arcachon 1926”. The date of 1930 which is generally attributed to this work reveals how long the painting took to complete. Bonnard reinvents space by positioning the figures, gathered close together in the foreground, in such a way as to depict the water and the sky as if seen through a window. It demonstrates the painter’s interest in surprising compositions, a legacy of Japonism, as well as his use of lithography.

I. C.