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But changes did take place. When looking at a picture executed in the new manner, one cannot help feeling that it is not so much a different picture as the earlier one transformed, but that the newer picture represents a deeper understanding of what the artist was doing before. Promenade c. 1900 Oil on canvas, 38 x 31 cm Private collection 62 While developing his talent, Bonnard at the same time remained true to himself. Bonnard’s invariable loyalty to himself and to his views on life is always expressed in his art.

He said that he did not belong to any school. His idea was to bring off something of his own and he was trying to forget all that he had been taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The Bridge 1896-1897 Lithograph in 4 colours, 27 x 41 cm 40 41 One more event in 1891 played an important role in Bonnard’s life. The journal Revue Blanche moved its editorial office from Brussels to Paris. Bonnard and other members of the Nabi group soon established a good relationship with the publisher Thadée Natanson, another former student of the Lycée Condorcet.

On the pages of the Revue Blanche literary critics discussed the works of Leo Tolstoy. Natanson himself devoted his first article to Utamaro and Hiroshige. Without exaggeration, the Revue Blanche was the best French cultural periodical of the 1890s. The atmosphere in its editorial office, which the Nabis often visited, was stimulating. Landscape in the Dauphiné c. 5 x 56 cm Hermitage, St. Petersburg 44 45 Natanson’s personal support for the artists was also of no small importance. He was as young as the artists whom he backed and was not afraid to follow his own inclinations.