Licensing Resources
The Mirror in the Green Room (La Glace de la Chambre Verte)
1908
38.84
On display in H200
Artwork Details
19-3/4 x 25-3/4 in. (sheet) 26-7/8 x 33-1/8 x 1-9/16 in. (framed, glazed)
Mark DescriptionSigned in light blue oil paint upper left: BONNARD Inscribed date in olive-green oil paint upper left and thought to be added some time after the painting was executed in 1908: Janvier | 1909
Accession NumberJames E. Roberts Fund
CopyrightEuropean Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945
Color PaletteProvenance
Provenance
Purchased from the artist in November 1908 by (Bernheim-Jeune & Cie, Paris, France);{1} purchased by Count Harry Kessler [1868-1937], Berlin and Weimar, Germany in January 1909.{2} Dr. George Viau [1855-1939]. (Theodore Schempp, New York, New York) by 1938; sold to the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, in November 1938.{3} {1} Letter from J. and H. Dauberville of Bernheim-Jeune & Cie, Paris, France, dated 28 September 1965, stating that the painting was B-J no. 16.919, purchased from the artist on 22 November 1908. They also note that the date appearing below the artist`s signature `Janvier 1909` must have been added quite a while later (IMA Historical File). {2} Ibid. The painting can be seen hanging on the salon wall in a photograph of Kessler's Weimar home, see Sabine Walter, `Die Sammlung Harry Graf Kessler in Weimar und Berlin,` in Andrea Pophauken and Felix Billeter, Die Moderne und ihre Sammler: Französische Kunst in Deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik, Berlin 2001, p. 73. Due to financial insolvency, Kessler's distinguished collection began to be dispersed in the late 1920s, see Beatrice von Bismarck, `Harry Graf Kessler und die französische Kunst um die Jahrhundertwende,` Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, volume 42, no. 3 (1988), p. 62. {3} IMA Temporary Receipt No. 3775.
Gallery Labels
Gallery Labels
- Above the washstand in this intimate scene is a mirror reflecting the image of a woman bathing and a seated figure. Bonnard relished compositions like this one, based on unusual vantage points and spatial relationships.
- Bonnard was a member of a group of innovative Parisian artists who called themselves the Nabis, from the Hebrew word for prophet. They favored images with a strong sense of mood and decorative patterns.
- Bonnard’s fondness for glowing color appears in the dappled golden light filtering through the curtains on the right.
Exhibition History
Exhibition History
Exhibition Name
Venue
Dates
Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Klinger and the "New Weimar"
National Gallery of Canada
April 18, 2019 - August 25, 2019
Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky
Montréal Museum of Fine Arts
October 6, 2014 - January 25, 2015
Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
June 8, 2014 - September 14, 2014
Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard
Indianapolis Museum of Art
June 8, 2012 - September 2, 2012
Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard
The Phillips Collection
February 4, 2012 - May 6, 2012
Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard
The Van Gogh Museum
October 14, 2011 - January 8, 2012
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870-1910
The Phillips Collection
February 18, 2006 - May 14, 2006
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870-1910
Tate Britain
October 6, 2005 - January 5, 2006
Modern French Paintings
Allen Memorial Art Museum
November 1, 1940 - November 25, 1940
Bonnard, Oeuvres Récentes
Bernheim Jeune
February 1, 1909 - February 20, 1909
Related Content
Curator Ellen Lee discusses Bonnard’s interests as an artist and the choices he made regarding space and form.
Learn more about the role of the camera in Bonnard’s intimate paintings from the 2012 IMA exhibition of “Snapshot.”
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