14: The Bonnard Room

This hall is used to display the works of Pierre Bonnard (1864–1947), one of the foremost members of the Nabi group. In 1890 Bonnard shared a studio in Montmartre with Denis and Vuillard. He illustrated the verses of the Symbolist poet Verlaine and made designs for tapestries and theatrical decorations. In 1910 Ivan Morozov, prompted by the success that Denis's Story of Psyche panels had been with his guests, commissioned Bonnard to paint a triptych to decorate the main staircase of his Moscow mansion. By that time Bonnard had become taken with landscape painting, visited Saint-Tropez and discovered the south of France. The triptych entitled The Mediterranean that he produced for Morozov became a highpoint in decorative and landscape painting in the early 20th century.

The display is installed in one of the rooms that belonged to the Department of Foreign Trade within the Ministry of Finance between 1830 and 1917. The interior decoration of the room has not survived.