Word: bonnards
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...eyes of many Frenchmen, the worst thing famed Painter Pierre Bonnard ever did was to make an honest woman of his pink, satin-skinned model, Marthe de Meligny. When, in 1930, after living with Marthe for more than a quarter-century, Bonnard marched her down to the mayor's office and married her, he set in motion the grinding machinery of French law which finally crushed him and threatened every creative artist in the nation...
...Joint. In 1942 Marthe died, and Bonnard, a frail, spectacled old man of 74, was quite lost without her. He was staggered when a letter arrived from the public registrar notifying him that, since Marthe had died intestate, their joint property would be sequestered until the question of heirs was settled. The "joint" property consisted of stacks of his unsold paintings and portfolios of drawings...
Since his brilliant, luminous canvases were even then bringing up to $10,000 each, an estate of several million dollars was involved. Bonnard's friends were gloomy; in their opinion there was no escape from the basic French law of "community of goods," and in time of war, with half France occupied by the Nazis, Vichy government officials would certainly sell his goods to pay Marthe's inheritance taxes. If only she had left a will...
...early and not especially rewarding Picasso that cost just $45,000 three years ago, was bought by Kirkeby only last year for a whopping $185,000. His loss on that canvas was more than compensated by record-breaking prices for a golden clutch of modern favorites: Modigliani, Rouault. Bonnard. Vlaminck, Signac, Morisot. Pissaro and Segonzac. The whole thing had the fever of a poker game, with the blue chips in the hands of professional gamblers...
...Alex Goulandris, second cousin to Basil Goulandris whose $297,000 for Gauguin's Still Life with Apples set a new high (TIME, June 24), stepped into the ranks of top Greek buyers by purchasing a Matisse for $25,000, Bonnard's Still Life with Cat (appraised at $50,000) for $70,000, and Gauguin's Tahitian scene, Man Taporo...