2-736-088 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Nursemaids’ Promenade, Frieze of Carriages, 1895. This charming scene of a nanny and her three charges extends across four panels meant to be mounted as a folding screen. Influenced by the flood of Japanese goods into France, Bonnard emulated the solidly coloured flat forms silhouetted against areas of unmodulated colour in the symmetrical compositions of ukiyo-e, Japanese colour woodcuts, that he collected. Bonnard recalled, "It seemed to me that it was possible to translate light, form, and character with nothing but colour, without resorting to shading." Because this impression of Nursemaids Promenade had never been mounted or displayed, the colours have not faded and remain amazingly fresh—a rare condition for such a decorative work.