The Violet Fence

c. 1923

The Violet Fence, c. 1923. Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947). Graphite on beige wove paper; sheet: 10 x 14.9 cm (3 15/16 x 5 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.126 © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York This drawing relates to a painting of the same title, part of a large group of sketches and canvases that Pierre Bonnard created while living in the small French town of Vernon. The artist purchased a home there in 1912 and drew inspiration from a dense garden that grew nearby. In this sheet, Bonnard experimented with recording the picket fence for which the final painting was named, translating the landscape using jagged, sketchy lines that he later realized as loose and expressive brushstrokes with vivid color. Vernon, the village where Pierre Bonnard made this drawing, is near Giverny, where Claude Monet spent much of his career, and the two artists became friends while living and working in close proximity.