Pierre Bonnard. Women in a Garden: Woman in a Polka-Dot Dress (first version), 1890/91. Distemper over charcoal, pencil, and white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas. Kunsthaus Zürich, Society of Zurich Friends of Art, with a contribution in memory of Ernst Gamper (cat. no. 2)
Pierre Bonnard. Women in a Garden: Woman in a Checked Dress (first version), 1890/91. Distemper over charcoal, pencil, and white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas. Kunsthaus Zürich, Society of Zurich Friends of Art, with a contribution in memory of Ernst Gamper (cat. no. 3)
These images of women in gardens, clothed in up-to-the-minute fashions with extravagant hats, are the final preparatory studies for two of four "decorative panels" that Pierre Bonnard exhibited publicly in 1891. The artist had originally conceived of the four panels as a folding screen, but decided to separate them shortly before the exhibition because he felt that their composition and style were better suited to the format of individual panels. In the final version (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), two croquet wickets, barely visible to the left of the woman in the checked dress, were eliminated, indicating Bonnard’s suppression of specific narrative content in favor of a more general treatment of subject matter and a greater emphasis on abstract and decorative values.
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