Pierre Bonnard, artist : autograph card, signed, addressed to his gallerist Paul Brame in Cannes.

[Villa du Bosquet, Le Cannet : n.d., but c.1943]. Mailing card, 105 x 150 mm, the verso with an autograph signed note in violet ink in the hand of Pierre Bonnard, arranging a meeting with his gallerist, Paul Brame, in Cannes on the coming Wednesday afternoon; the front has an imprinted stamp with the bust of Marshal Pétain, head of the Vichy government, and is addressed (again in Bonnard’s hand, with the same pen) ‘M[onsieu]r Brame, 12 avenue V’ (i.e. Avenue de Valescure, Saint-Raphaël); there is no postmark – the card must have been delivered by hand on Bonnard’s behalf; very fine condition.

‘Cher monsieur Brame,

Encore une carte pour vous dire que je serai pris mercredi matin jusque midi. Et que j’irai plutôt après midi à Cannes pour une demi heure quand vous y descendrez après déjeuner. Amitiés, Bonnard‘.

(Dear Mr. Brame,

Another card to let you know that I’ll be busy Wednesday morning until noon. And that I’ll be going to Cannes for half an hour later on, when you go down there after lunch. Best regards, Bonnard.) (Our translation)

French painter, illustrator and printmaker Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), a key figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism, was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters known as Les Nabis.

In the last two decades of his life, Bonnard’s studio and residence were at the Villa du Bosquet in Le Cannet, just 3km north of Cannes; at the time he wrote this card to Paul Brame, the art dealer was based in Saint-Raphaël, approximately 40km to the west of Cannes.