Pierre Boncompain
Pierre Boncompain Franklin Bowles Galleries San Francisco / New York
Musée d’Art Contemporain, St. Martin in Montélimar
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t has been more than two years since our last Pierre Boncompain exhibition in the United States and there are several exciting new developments to report concerning his career. Boncompain recently had a one-man show at the prestigious Musée d’Art Contemporain, St. Martin in Montélimar, situated in his beloved Provence. This vast exhibition filled ten halls and included not only his exquisite paintings and pastels, but also tapestries and ceramics. There are two other significant public exhibitions currently in the planning stages for Boncompain; one will be in Strasbourg, France and the other at the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center in the Netherlands. The Strasbourg exhibition will feature a superb group of sixty pastels and three tapestries illustrating the Cantique des Cantiques, a collection of dramatic love poems from the Old Testament. Boncompain’s Cantique des Cantiques was previously exhibited in both Holland and Japan and this important set has been promised to the Musée de Valence. This museum, located in the city of Pierre’s birth, was an early supporter of Boncompain’s career and has hosted several exhibitions of his work.
In addition, I know that our many collectors will be thrilled to learn that Pierre has published a new book, Un Certain Silence. The book debuted earlier in the year at a gala reception hosted by the French House of Representatives in Pierre’s honor. There are more than 100 illustrations and the book includes an interview with the artist conducted by our own Professor Jean Audigier. When we first introduced the work of Pierre Boncompain, our collectors were enthralled by his velvety pastels on paper. I doubt that many are familiar with the wonderful history behind those pastels. La Maison du Pastel is an extraordinary shop in Paris which has been in business since 1720. They create the world’s most-desired pastel sticks, handmade with the purest pigments from around the world. Now run by the original owner’s grandniece, the shop is the source for the lustrous colors that you see in the pastel works of Boncompain. You will find more on this fascinating story later in this catalog and on our website.
The charm of Provence flows through Boncompain’s new paintings. His themes are simple—nudes, still lifes, landscapes—but through his continued experimentation with intense color, expressive line, and flat, patterned surfaces, he transcends the everyday to offer us a vision of life that is infinitely attractive. Along with our collectors, I have been patiently waiting for more of Boncompain’s luscious paintings and pastels. Fortunately, this fall he has given us an extraordinary body of work that was well worth the wait. I am pleased to present this latest collection for your enjoyment.
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Le corsage jaune oil on canvas 39 x 31.5 inches
right
Automne en Provence oil on canvas 51 x 63 inches
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DÊlire d’aubergines oil on canvas 18 x 21 inches
Nappe de Bali oil on canvas 31.5 x 39 inches
Les tahes de couleur oil on canvas 31 x 16 inches
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There is no blue without yellow and without orange. Vincent van Gogh
Nu au jardin oil on canvas 38 x 45 inches
opposite
Le sarrouel bleu oil on canvas 38 x 45 inches
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Sieste au canapé jaune oil on canvas 21 x 28 inches
“The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water and fire. Colour is a raw material indispensable to life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures.” Un bouquet de soleil oil on canvas 57 x 44 inches
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Fernand Leger “On Monumentality and Color”, 1943
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Nappe bleue au rayon de soleil oil on canvas 31.5 x 39 inches
Le patchwork oil on canvas 31.5 x 39 inches opposite
Bayadère oil on canvas 45 x 35 inches
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Nappe jaune et melon d’ Espagne oil on canvas 39 x 31.5 inches Platanes oil on canvas 45 x 35 inches
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L’ombre chaude oil on canvas 35 x 45 inches
His landscapes are composed of large solid colors seemingly displaying a single shade, but it is extremely intricate…. A yellow tint is actually made up of several yellows, warm yellows, cold yellows and the profusion of strokes refracts light in a different way, making the painting alive. Jean Gilbert Automne à Vercheny oil on canvas 63 x 51 inches
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Fruits d’etÊ sur la nappe de Bali oil on canvas 36 x 25 inches
Nappe de Bali au papillon oil on canvas 39 x 31.5 inches
Petit foulard oil on canvas 21 x 18 inches
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Rocking chair au jardin oil on canvas 16 x 10.5 inches
There are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine. Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Nappe bleue et plante verte oil on canvas 44 x 57 inches
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Plat de cirtrons oil on canvas 21 x 18 inches
Le casaquin jaune oil on canvas 45 x 38 inches
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Nappe bleue au feuillage oil on canvas 35 x 45 inches
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La ceinture bleue oil on canvas 38 x 45 inches
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La coupe de la compagnie des Indes oil on canvas 31.5 x 39 inches
Kakis et mandarines oil on canvas 18 x 21 inches
You can’t go wrong with the use of red; every painting should have red in it. George De Groat
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Citrons et mimosa oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches
PensĂŠes au tapis Persan oil on canvas 39 x 28 inches
l’arbre roux oil on canvas 57 x 44 inches
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Nu nacrĂŠ oil on canvas 25 x 36 inches
Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions. Le Potimaron et la nappe Ă rayures oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches
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Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
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Citrons et nappe bleue oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches
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Tulipes au vase de Rouen oil on canvas 57 x 44 inches
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THE STORY OF
LA MAISON DU PASTEL
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n the heart of Paris, on rue Rambuteau, inside a nondescript courtyard, there is a magical place where color reigns supreme. This is where Pierre Boncompain took me on a sunny Parisian day last summer. Neither the façade, now soberly redone, nor the interior give any hint of the beauty contained in the omnipresent old drawers patinated by the centuries. The owner, Isabelle Roché, and a young American, Margaret Zayer, who could have been a model for Renoir, welcomed us to their special place. This is where the best pastels in the world are made. It is where color becomes more than an artist’s tool, color becomes a sensuous experience. In the words of Edmund Feldman, “colors, as with great music, carry out transactions directly with the nervous systems and we feel calmed or invigorated, our being having been quietly renewed.” Isabelle Roché: La Maison du Pastel was founded in 1720. It originated in Versailles and was created to serve all the great portraitists of the time. It was taken over by Dr. Henri Roché in 1878. Dr. Roché made the old pastel formulas but also created new color formulas by talking with the artists of the time including Degas, Chéret, Whistler and Sisley. They were all coming to Dr. Roché with particular desires; ‘I would like this color, this texture, this would work for me...’ and Dr. Roché would go back to his laboratory and experiment until he created the colors they wanted.
Jean Audigier: And what is the usual binder? Isabelle Roché: Ah! That’s a secret of La Maison du Pastel! In spite of our insistence, Isabelle refused to tell us or even to show us one of the formulas for the pastels. These secret formulas created in the distant past are jealously guarded by Isabelle and Margaret in much the same way that the recipe for Coca-Cola is carefully protected. As we were talking about the pastels, someone beside me was busy selecting some. Pierre Boncompain had said that he would accompany us to La Maison du Pastel to share with us this special place but he was not going to buy anything (the pastels are also the most expensive in the world). In spite of his resolution, with the look of a child in a candy shop, there he was making his own pile of colorful sticks. He could not resist! Pierre Boncompain: These are the Rolls-Royce of pastels… But Isabelle corrected him! Isabelle Roché: I disagree because a Rolls-Royce is something you are driven in; they are like a Lamborghini—something you drive yourself. In this exhibition of Boncompain’s work, you are going to see these special pastels whose colors are the best in the world. Some of them were formulated with the help of the greatest pastellist of the 19th century, Edgar Degas, and they are now being used by one of the best pastellists of today, Pierre Boncompain.
Jean Audigier: So what makes these pastels so extraordinary that every artist from Degas to Boncompain wants them? Isabelle Roché: Our pastels are made in a very precise way. A pastel stick consists of only pigment and binder. Roché pastels have very specific formulas and making them by hand allows us to incorporate a maximum amount of pigment and a very little amount of binder. So you end up with exceptionally pure color in the sticks.
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Lecture sur le fauteuil (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 21 inches
I aim at endowing my pastels with the same density, the same notion of completion found in a painting‌Colors and forms invigorate each other with a supreme expressivity. Pierre Boncompain
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Le drap bleu (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
Nu nacré (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 18 inches
Anémones au vase à décor bleu (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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Femme aux delphiniums (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 21 inches
opposite
La vie en rose pastel on paper 39 x 28 inches
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Pierre and Colette Boncompain outside their new home in Provence
Through the prism that fate has given him, Pierre Boncompain sees the world in its original colors. Dominque Vergnon
Platanes (sur bois) pastel on wood 21 x 18 inches
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Nu au nuage (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 21 inches
Nu au drap bleu (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 21 inches
La robe aux ramages bleus pastel on paper 31 x 24.5 inches
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Tulipes jaunes au vase de rouen (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
Sous le bouquet pastel on paper 31 x 25 inches
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The objects in front of you are flowers, but the subject is color. Michele Cooper
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La ceinture bleue (sur bois) pastel on wood 14 x 21 inches
Nu sous la fenĂŞtre (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 21 inches
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Le salut final cirque pastel on paper 19.5 x 25 inches
opposite
Arlequin sur cheval blanc cirque pastel on paper 25 x 19.5 inches
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Clowns et chameau cirque pastel on paper 19.5 x 25 inches
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La cage aux lions cirque pastel on paper 19.5 x 25 inches
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Le ch창le jaune pastel on paper 38 x 26 inches
opposite
Nu au bracelet rose pastel on paper 36 x 28 inches
below
Colette Boncompain provides artistic inspiration for her husband at their home in Provence
Drawing is feeling. Color is an act of reason. Pierre Bonnard
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La cafetière d’argent (sur bois) pastel on wood 21 x 13 inches
Derrière le bouquet (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
opposite
Nu lové (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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L’ombre bleue pastel on paper 24.5 x 32 inches
Le bonheur d’être pastel on paper 29 x 37 inches
I believe that the best way to approach my colors is to bathe in them, dive into them, and let oneself be enveloped by them… Pierre Boncompain
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Le pantalon rouge (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 18 inches
AnĂŠmones au vase polychrome (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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Jeune fille endormie (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 18 inches
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Jeune fille au canapĂŠ jaune (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 18 inches
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La ceinture jaune (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
Le corsage aux ramages bleus (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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L’ombre chaude (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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AnĂŠmones (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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Sur le banc (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15
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Bain de soleil pastel on paper 33.5 x 24.5 inches
Nu Ă lacouverture tigrĂŠe (sur bois) pastel on wood 21 x 15 inches
La serviette rayĂŠe (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
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Sommeil aux coussins (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
opposite
Sieste au bouquet jaune (sur bois) pastel on wood 18 x 15 inches
Colors are the translation on canvas of the view Boncompain offers to others and to the world around him. Dominque Vergnon
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Colette au chat (sur bois) pastel on wood 15 x 18 inches
opposite
Jeune fille au chat oil on canvas 31.5 x 21 inches
Lolita, one of Boncompain’s frequent models, practicing a pose
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Pierre Boncompain Selected curriculum vitae 2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2002
2001
2000
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Musée d’Art Contemporain Saint Martin, Montélimar, France The Feel of Color, Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA Publication of Un Certain Silence by Éditions Michel de Maule Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada One-man exhibition, Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA Galerie Artfrance, Paris, France Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada One-man exhibition, Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA Sakura No Ki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Atelier Museum Haus Ludwig, Saarlouis, Germany Galerie Mark Peet Visser, Heusden, Holland Sixth one-man exhibition, Hammer Galleries, New York, NY Galerie d’Etraz, Lausanne, Switzerland Galerie Kwai Fung Hin, Hong Kong, China Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Mysére et couleur: A Retrospective, Château de Vascoeuil, France (Tapestires), Musée d’Angers, France (Ceramics), Musée de Saragosse, Spain Museums of Beijing and Shanghai China Galerie Mark Peet Visser, Heusder, Holland Galerie Horizon, Geneva, Switzerland Galerie Sassi-Milici, Vallauris, France Galerie Sakura No Ki, Tokyo, Japan (Tapestries), Galerie Artfrance, Paris, France Galerie Mark-Peet Visser, Laren, Holland Fifth one-man exhibition, Hammer Galleries, New York, NY Galerie des remparts, Bordeaux, France Art Expo, Geneva, Switzerland Musée de Valence, France Galerie Kwai, Hong Kong, China Galerie Artfrance, Paris, France Art Fair, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China Galerie Artfrance, Paris, France French May Exhibition, Hong Kong, China Galerie Mark-Peet-Visser, Heusden, Holland (10-year anniversary of ceramics), Galeries Sassi Milici, Vallauris, France Fourth one-man exhibition, Hammer Galleries, New York, NY 4 limited edition serigraphs published with Hammer Galleries and Brand-X Studios Retrospective Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China Emiliani Gallery, Dieuleft, France Ambrosiano Library, Milan, Italy Third one-man exhibition, Hammer Galleries, New York, NY Publication of Ceramics Book of Pierre Boncompain Singer Foundation, Laren, Holland Galerie Artfrance, Paris, France Elliot Yeary Gallery, Aspen, Colorado Exhibition of Ceramics, Galerie Sassi-Milici, Vallauris, France Commission for mural, “The Goddess,” for Rats Restaurant at Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey
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Index OILS Automne à Vercheny Automne en Provence Bayadère Citrons et mimosa Citrons et nappe bleue Délire d’aubergines Fruits d’eté sur la nappe de Bali Jeune fille au chat Kakis et mandarines La ceinture bleue La coupe de la compagnie des Indes l’arbre roux Le bracelet bleu Le casaquin jaune Le corsage jaune Le patchwork Le Potimaron et la nappe à rayures Le sarrouel bleu Les tahes de couleur L’ombre chaude Nappe bleue au feuillage Nappe bleue au rayon de soleil Nappe bleue et plante verte Nappe de Bali Nappe de Bali au papillon Nappe jaune et melon d’ Espagne Nu au jardin Nu nacré Pensées au tapis Persan Petit foulard Plat de cirtrons Platanes Rocking chair au jardin Sieste au canapé jaune Tulipes au vase de Rouen Un bouquet de soleil
17 4-5 13 29 32 6 18 72 27 25 26 28 77 22 4 12 30 8 7 16 24 12 20-21 6 18 15 9 31 29 19 23 14 20 11 33 10
PASTELS Anémones (sur bois) Anémones au vase à décor bleu (sur bois) Anémones au vase polychrome (sur bois) Arlequin sur cheval blanc cirque Bain de soleil Clowns et chameau cirque Colette au chat (sur bois) Derrière le bouquet (sur bois ) Femme aux delphiniums (sur bois) Jeune fille au canapé jaune (sur bois) Jeune fille endormie (sur bois) La cafetière d’argent (sur bois) La cage aux lions cirque La ceinture bleue (sur bois) La ceinture jaune (sur bois) La robe aux ramages bleus La serviette rayée (sur bois) La vie en rose Le bonheur d’être Le châle jaune Le corsage aux ramages bleus (sur bois) Le drap bleu (sur bois) Le pantalon rouge (sur bois) Le salut final cirque Lecture sur le fauteuil (sur bois) L’ombre bleue L’ombre chaude (sur bois) Nu à lacouverture tigrée (sur bois) Nu au bracelet rose Nu au drap bleu (sur bois) Nu au nuage (sur bois) Nu lové (sur bois) Nu nacré (sur bois) Nu sous la fenêtre (sur bois) Platanes (sur bois) Sieste au bouquet jaune (sur bois) Sommeil aux coussins (sur bois) Sous le bouquet Sur le banc (sur bois) Tulipes jaunes au vase de rouen (sur bois)
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opposite
Le bracelet bleu oil on canvas 12 x 23 inches
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project managers:
Stacey Bellis, Emilee Enders Interview by: Dr. Jean Audigier, USF photography:
Patrick Goetelen Digital photography of artwork Marc Audigier Studio photographs – 2012 catalogue design:
Susan Tsuchiya front cover:
Anémones au vase polychrome (bois) back cover:
Le corsage aux ramages bleus (sur bois) inside front cover:
Nu sous la fenêtre (sur bois)
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Franklin Bowles Galleries San Francisco
New York
765/799 Beach Street
431 West Broadway
San Francisco CA 94109
New York NY 10012
415.441.8008 / 800.926.9535
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