Intimism

Intimism, variety of late 19th- and early 20th-century painting that made an intense exploration of the domestic interior as subject matter. It was practiced principally by Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, the two most distinguished members of the Nabis. To convey the warmth, comfort, and quiet isolation of interior scenes, Bonnard and Vuillard used the Impressionist broken-colour technique of capturing the light and atmosphere of the fleeting moment. But unlike the Impressionists, who derived their colours from precise observation of the visual world, these painters exaggerated and distorted natural colour to express mood.

Both Bonnard and Vuillard displayed a strong decorative sense in the arrangement of dense areas of colour. Using rich, subdued colours, Vuillard produced paintings characterized by harmonious composition and exquisite form. Bonnard, somewhat less concerned with formal structure, infused a playful tenderness into his bright, gently coloured scenes (which usually included the unobtrusive figure of his wife). Although Intimism did not attract a wealth of followers as a movement, its achievements were considerable enough to give it an influential place in the art of the period. The term Intimism is best characterized by André Gide’s description of Vuillard’s four-panel Figures and Interiors (1896) as art “speaking in a low tone, suitable to confidences.”