Contact gallery for price		François Bonvin Paris 1817 – 1887 Saint-German-en-Laye Interieur de Communanté: Religieuse se Préparant pour le Repas Pen and brown ink and brown and gray wash on paper 6 5/16 x 4 5/8 inches (16.0 x 11.8 cm) Signed on verso: F. Bonvin 2827 Provenance: Galerie Berès, Paris 1999 Private Collection, New York Literature: François Bonvin, The Master of the Realist School, Anisabelle Berès, Michael Arveiller, Galerie Berès and the Frick Art and Historical Center, The Museum of Pittsburg, PA, no. 67, Paris, 1999. François Bonvin is one of the most interesting painters of the 19th century. He had a very difficult childhood; he lost his mother when he was only 4 years old. With very few means he began drawing at École-de-Médecine, where they offered him free classes. After having been there for two years, financial difficulties forced him to begin working. He found employment with the police force. However, he continued to draw and spent all his free time at the Parisian museums, in particular at the Louvre. During the evenings he went to Gobelin’s studio and later to the Académie Suisse. Our drawing Interieur de Communanté was executed after a two-month trip to the Netherlands. It demonstrates the strong influence that Rembrandt’s drawings had on Bonvin. Also, the direct influence of the Northern schools in the handling of the pen as well as the composition. This marks a turning point in Bonvin’s work. His compositions become more complex, incorporating multi-spatial areas at which his work had previously hinted. The drawing shows us a young sister washing her hands at a copper fountain at the entrance of the refectory. Her gray robe and black scapular probably indicate that she is one of the nuns from the Saint German hospital, a Sister of the Charity. In the background, the refectory is already crowded with Sisters, standing at their places, awaiting the graces. During this period, Bonvin often used a very particular ink-and-wash technique. The influence of the Dutch masters is very strong here, both in the technique and in the lines themselves. It is especially reminiscent of Rembrandt’s drawing and composition. Bonvin had been exploiting the device of allowing his viewer to glimpse another room since 1857, which is a direct influence of Northern schools. This is his own vision of art as an expression of the spiritual life, a vision of the soul painted with the aid of common ordinary subjects.