content or meaning of the artwork

Art analysis: la revue blanche by pierre bonnard

Elements of Art

In this poster, he used his inspiration from Japanese woodblocks and created a flat space with a small build-up of hues on the faces of the figures to create a slight feeling of depth.
Bonnard relies less on shading to depict the people and their clothing. The detail on the bodies of the figures are lost with shapes being simplified/abstracted: Unmodulated color.

The design on the urchin’s scarf is very flat. Bonnard’s influence from Japanese woodcut prints can be seen here. The pattern denies the illusion of space because the pattern does not overlap or go back into space.

Value:

The poster’s lettering is shaky and continues the theme of Bonnard’s loose line style throughout the poster. This type of line can be seen in the urchin’s face.

Form:

Principles of Art

Bonnard also makes the woman the spotlight by making the urchin boy plain and untidy looking. If you compare those to figures together you can see the attention and time he took to make the woman look good, while the boy’s face looks quickly drawn with a messy appearance. ( stressing the differences between those two figures)

Gradation:

The stylish woman is clutching a copy of La Revue Blanche in her hand, the urchin boy in front of her is motioning towards it with his thumb. Both of the figures are looking to the right, creating an invisible diagonal line or an implied line that the viewer’s eyes follow.
The implied line created in the poster creates a guide that leads the viewer’s eye throughout the work.

Both the woman and the black top-hatted figure are made to be the heavier components on the poster causing them to leap out at the viewer, more than the untidy and less detailed urchin figure who appears lighter than all the other figures. This makes the urchin boy is an afterthought in the poster.

Proportion:

Subject matter

The posters read: “ The White Magazine Appears Each Month In 100-page Deliveries For Sale Everywhere,” and has the magazine’s address above the heads of the figures. The poster’s main lettering spells out the magazine’s name coming from the woman and some of the letters are playfully around her hand (people often say it looks like she’s holding an umbrella) and thigh.

The trend in History

Bonnard entered a Post-Impressionist group full of artists known as the Nabis, who was massively inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. Lots of artists during this time including Bonnard became heavily influenced by these woodblock prints. After discovering this type of art Bonnard’s art became full of bold colors, drawn forms, no use of perspective, and interesting figures wearing some form of loose clothing, which can be seen in a majority of Japanese woodblock prints. This influence can be seen in his lithographs in the Parisian literary magazine La Revue Blanche .