Pierre Bonnard, France’s most important 20th century artist after Matisse, painted wife Marthe hundreds of times. A new film shows their bond was deep, but complex and tumultuous
Despite the hundreds of books and catalogues devoted to the art of Pierre Bonnard, we are obliged to piece together his life from a mass of unreliable snippets.
The major authority was his great-nephew, Antoine Terrasse (1928-2013), but the family connection can also act as a form of censorship, ensuring that difficult or disreputable stories are avoided.
