Bonnard

Today is the Birthdate of Pierre Bonnard, another one of my favorite painters. I've just had oral surgery and I sort of look and half feel like I've had a face transplant so I'm not going to try too hard on this one.

I thought Bonnard would be an easy guy to talk about since most of his paintings, although complex on a visual level, are of delightful topics. I thought I could find a guy capable of True Love here as he seems to have been a devoted husband who obsessviely painted his wife in their country house while playing around with color observation and compositional games. He's got Libra Sun conjunct Venus opposite Neptune and squaring Uranus. What a delightful aspect for an artist.

And, then whoops, Mars in Scorpio in his 12th House with Saturn conjunct Scorpio Rising opposite Pluto in the 6th House. That could show complicated relationship problems. Plus, he's got Scorpio Rising, Moon in the first House with Virgo MC and Virgo NN just like Rembrandt. His biographies don't like to gab about his personal life much but I found a good article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2926/.

I'm going to switch over to the poets if I want to continue seeking the secret for True Love in a chart. I'm convinced that artists simply don't experience True Love.

Bonnard went to Law School and was saved from that profession when he won a poster contest. He became a graphic artist and made many posters and eventually switched over to painting, using a lot of graphic artist compositional elements into his work. He exhibited with the Nabi painters for a while. And he had affairs with a bunch of his models. One model he eventually married. Her professional name was Marthe and her real name was Maria. He met her around 1893 and married her in 1925. Seven years before meeting Marthe/Maria he had started up with another model named Renee who killed herself when he wouldn't leave Marthe. Marthe had tubercular laryngitis and took a lot of baths as treatments so there are many beautiful paintings of her sitting in bathtubs. Some people say she must have been a clean freak (Virgo?). At any rate, one can see the same problematic love life as Rembrandt, even as Debussy.

Pierre Bonnard
b. Oct. 3, 1867 10:00am Fontenay-aux-Roses, France (from astrotheme)

Sun 10 Libra; ASC Scorpio; Moon 14 Sagittarius; MC 11 Virgo; NN Virgo

Bonnard experienced Pluto traveling through his 7th House during his early years. It was joined by Neptune in Gemini which could account for his multiple affairs and non-committal ways. He got involved with Marthe/Marie around 1893. During this year Jupiter would have been conjunct Neptune and Pluto in Bonnard's 7th House. I assume that this is also around the time that his other mistress killed herself. As stated in the article that I've linked up above, Bonnard actually painted pictures with two women who looked like the mistresses together in the same pictures! That's pretty cold.

He also had a conjunction of progressed Sun and transiting Uranus on his Mars in Scorpio (H12), a pretty disruptive aspect but one of great creativity. His Progressed Mars was conjunct his natal Saturn/ASC and progressed Moon during this year. T. Saturn and the Nodes were on top of his Sun-Venus to Neptune opposition.

Eventually, Bonnard married Marthe in 1825 but kept the marriage hidden from his family for a while. (Saturn passing over natal 12th house Mars, then Saturn Return c. ASC opposite Pluto).