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Pierre
Bonnard. The Terrace at Vernon, or Décor at Vernon,
1920/39. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift
of Mrs. Frank Jay Gould, 1968 (cat. no. 57)
The Terrace at
Vernon can be considered either the second or the last of the three
great works showing the terrace and garden vista at Pierre Bonnards
Normandy home, Ma Roulotte. Although Bonnard began this composition in
1920, he did not completely resolve it until many years later, finishing
it in 1939, after he moved definitively to the south of France. Even then,
the painting must have held a particular fascination for the artist, as
it remained in his studio at the time of his death in 1947. It has been
suggested that this work was Bonnards meditation on his relationships
with two women. The figure at center holding an apple may be Marthe de
Méligny, his longtime mistress and wife as of 1925, while the figure
rushing in from the right can be compared to Renée Monchaty, his
lover for a brief period who committed suicide in 1925.
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