A auction of works by the Post-Impressionist artist Pierre Bonnard, from the collection of his great-nephew Antoine Terrasse, sold 99% by lot and made €5m, far above its pre-sale estimates, at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, France, on 29 March. The top lot was La promenade (1900), an enchanting small painting that sold to a US collector for €970,000, almost quadrupling its low estimate. Bonnard’s first self-portrait (1889) sold for €960,000. The only unsold work was a portrait of Renée Montchaty (around 1920), a mistress of Bonnard, who killed herself when the artist married. Jean-Pierre Osenat, the auctioneer, was delighted with the sale, but said: “It was a sad day for France, as practically everything went abroad.”
