La Revue blanche

Bonnard created more than one hundred twenty editioned projects between 1891 and 1947, including designs for theatre programs, exhibition announcements, sheet music, book and journal illustration, and individual prints. His first poster commission, an advertisement for champagne, appeared in 1891 and was an immediate success. This was eventually followed by nine other posters, including one for La Revue blanche, a Parisian periodical. This and Bonnard’s other posters bear many of the same design hallmarks: unmodulated colour, a playful depiction of flattened space, and decorative handling of silhouettes and textures.

La Revue blanche was a French art and literary magazine run between 1889 and 1903. It was founded in Li�ge in 1889 and run by the Natanson brothers. In 1891, the magazine moved to Paris, where it rivalled the Mercure de France, hence its name, which marked the difference with the Mercure’s purple cover. Some of the greatest writers and artists of the time were its collaborators.