Commissioned in 1891 by E. Debray, a vineyard owner from Tinqueux-lez-Reims, this was Bonnard's first print. This poster, with its innovative tone and composition, quickly became successful and drew the interest of Toulouse-Lautrec.
His friend Octave Mirbeau emphasized its decisive role: "the first poster print that had joyfully burst onto the walls of Paris since Daumier, so different from Chéret’s delightful illuminations, this France-Champagne, now impossible to find, is the work of Bonnard… It inaugurates a renewal of the lithographic art, of that art which Toulouse-Lautrec was to push to a known degree of refinement and mastery."
France Champagne (1891) by Pierre BonnardMusée Bonnard
An Innovative Poster
Bonnard chose to represent his seductive and sparkling cousin, Berthe Schaedlin, holding a champagne glass in a bold composition.
What is new here is the choice of simplified colors without modeling (shading), the sinuosity of the title-writing, like that of the female figure, already marking his keen interest in the popular Japanese prints of the time.
Added to this is the wide black outline that sections off each element in a play of arabesques that the painter would remain sensitive to throughout his Nabis period.
The foam overflows and streams down, covering a third of the poster, which allowed him to place his text on the white surface.
The critic Félix Fénéon exclaimed in the magazine Le Chat Noir: "A poster superior to the products of Appel and Lévy, without for once – finally! – being by Chéret or Grasset. Hives and rockery spring inexhaustibly from the cup offered by a plump waitress, her hair also foaming, her eyes crinkled with laughter."
France-Champagne: And After?
During this flourishing era for printmaking, Bonnard created numerous drawings and illustrations, particularly for Thadée Natanson's La Revue blanche and for Ambroise Vollard.
Musée Bonnard
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.