Pierre Bonnard, Doorway, 1966

Pierre Bonnard (French: 3 October 1867 – 23 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylised decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of colour. He was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis, and his early work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, and the prints of Hokusai and other Japanese artists. He was a leading figure in the transition from impressionism to modernism. He painted landscapes, urban scenes, portraits and intimate domestic scenes, where the backgrounds, colours and painting style usually took precedence over the subject.

This work was produced a homage to Bonnard by dealer Aime Maeght, in 1966. As a youth, Aime Maeght studied art and music, training as a lithographer at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes.  His first commercial encounter in the art world came in 1930, when Pierre Bonnard came to his Cannes shop and had Maeght print a programme for a Maurice Chevalier concert with a Bonnard lithograph. After the programmes were produced, Maeght put the lithograph in the print-shop window. A quick sale encouraged the artist to give him a second picture. Maeght made his Paris debut as a major art dealer on the Rue de Teheran in 1945, after World War II.