ANNE BONNET
Anne Bonnet (Brussels 1908 - 1960)
We are looking for quality works by this artist.
Call 02 539.23.09 or mail to [email protected]
We are looking for quality works by this artist.
Call 02 539.23.09 or mail to [email protected]
"Abstract composition" ca 1953, oil on panel, 45 x 37 cm
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
"Abstract composition" 1954, oil on panel, 45 x 37 cm
Sold in Paris on November 24th 2025 for 12.000 Euro hammer, ca 15.600 Euro all-in
Sold in Paris on November 24th 2025 for 12.000 Euro hammer, ca 15.600 Euro all-in
"Composition" 1956, oil painting, 57 x 72,5 cm
Available
Available
Exhibition of "Belgian contemporary art" in Pavilion VII" during Expo '58 at the Heysel in Brussels
Three paintings by Anne Bonnet lent by Maurice Houyoux, head architect
Three paintings by Anne Bonnet lent by Maurice Houyoux, head architect
"Composition" 1958 (Sold)
Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm
Certificate by Louis Bonnet at the back
Illustration in "Anne Bonnet, le territoire de la peinture" by Marcel Daloze, Ed. Ludion, p. 107
Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm
Certificate by Louis Bonnet at the back
Illustration in "Anne Bonnet, le territoire de la peinture" by Marcel Daloze, Ed. Ludion, p. 107
The "Young belgian Painters" attending Marc Mendelson's wedding, 1945
Front row : Mig Quinet, Anne Bonnet & Odette Collon
Standing a.o. Louis Van Lint, Antoine Mortier & Gaston Bertrand
Front row : Mig Quinet, Anne Bonnet & Odette Collon
Standing a.o. Louis Van Lint, Antoine Mortier & Gaston Bertrand
"Composition" 1950, oil on canvas, 52 x 66 cm, one of her first abstract paintings
Sold
Sold
"Medina" 1952, oil on canvas, 65 x 80 cm
Former collection Ernest van Zuylen, Liège
Sold
Former collection Ernest van Zuylen, Liège
Sold
"Equilibrium" 1953, oil on panel, 45 x 37 cm
Former collection Louis Camu
Sold
Former collection Louis Camu
Sold
"Composition" ca 1955, gouache, 32 x 42,5 cm
Sold
Sold
"La main blanche" ca 1957, gouache, 41 x 68 cm
Sold
Sold
"Composition in white, black & grey (two birds)" 1950's, Watercolour, 51 x 70 cm
Sold. Private collection, Long Island, U.SA.
Sold. Private collection, Long Island, U.SA.
"Abstract composition" 1950's
Sold
Sold
"Composition (fish)" 1955, watercolour, 26 x 36 cm
Sold
Sold
Anne Bonnet (Brussels 1908-1960), was educated at the Academy of Brussels and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (Professor Jacques Maes), where she became friends with Louis Van Lint and Gaston Bertrand. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1941. In 1945, she was a founding member of the ”Jeune Peinture Belge”
(Young belgian painters) and in 1948 she exhibited at the famous Gallery Apollo. The first period in the work of Bonnet was inspired by animism. Under the influence of the “Young French Painters”, she later integrated elements of postcubism in her work. In 1948-49 she was inspired by urban landscapes she had seen during her travels, making use of a series of rythmic plans modulating the entire surface of the canvas. Around 1950 Anne Bonnet started to make abstract works and in 1952 she became a founding member of the group "Space", which promoted non-figurative art.
Group 2 Gallery has been promoting for several decades Bonnet's oeuvre and has exhibited and sold many important paintings, gouaches and watercolours. Feel free to contact us by mail [email protected] or by phone 02 539.23.09 for more information or if you wish to sell one of her works.
A new book "Anne Bonnet : le territoire de la peinture" by Marcel Daloze has been published by Ludion. You can order it here
An exhibition about Anne Bonnet is organized by the Marthe Donas museum in Ittre, Belgium from November 26 2022 to January 29, 2023. More info at www.museemarthedonas.be
Early years and the making of a constructivist abstract painter
Anne Bonnet was born in Brussels in 1908 and died there in 1960. She developed her artistic practice with great independence and thus occupied a key position as a free spirit within Belgian modernism. Critics recognised early on her ability to reconcile perception and construction. That twofold strength, nourished by discipline and intuition, would guide her trajectory towards abstraction and explains why her oeuvre still feels fresh and contemporary today.
Bonnet trained at the Brussels Academy and at the academy of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode with Jacques Maes. There she formed friendships with, among others, Louis Van Lint and Gaston Bertrand, artists who, together with her, helped shape post-war modernism in Belgium. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1941 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, an early acknowledgement of her maturity and of a consistent, rigorous work ethic.
From 1945 onwards, she was a founding member of the group “La Jeune Peinture Belge”, the renewal movement that built a bridge between the Belgian scene and international modernity. What distinguished her was the consistent will to approach every pictorial question from multiple angles. The result is an oeuvre that reveals both lyrical sensitivity and a striving for clear constructions and that is at once highly personal and exemplary for her generation’s search for a contemporary, non-illustrative painting.
Bonnet trained at the Brussels Academy and at the academy of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode with Jacques Maes. There she formed friendships with, among others, Louis Van Lint and Gaston Bertrand, artists who, together with her, helped shape post-war modernism in Belgium. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1941 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, an early acknowledgement of her maturity and of a consistent, rigorous work ethic.
From 1945 onwards, she was a founding member of the group “La Jeune Peinture Belge”, the renewal movement that built a bridge between the Belgian scene and international modernity. What distinguished her was the consistent will to approach every pictorial question from multiple angles. The result is an oeuvre that reveals both lyrical sensitivity and a striving for clear constructions and that is at once highly personal and exemplary for her generation’s search for a contemporary, non-illustrative painting.
Rhythm of the plane, logic of light
Bonnet’s early works are marked by animism. Under the influence of the group “Jeune Peinture Française”, she gradually integrated post-cubist elements into her canvases. Around 1948 and 1949 she transformed urban impressions from her travels into compositions built from rhythmic planes that modulate the entire surface, as if façades, streets and light were reduced to interlocking plan segments that pulse like a heartbeat. The painting becomes a constructed field in which colour and plane hold each other in balance and where every area plays a specific role.
Technically, Bonnet worked with oil on canvas and panel, but equally with gouache and watercolour on paper. In these media she found the right register for transparency, layering and nuance. The surface of her works breathes, with subtle shifts in tone and texture that make the image vibrate without losing its balance. Even in her smaller formats she achieves a monumental clarity, because the image is supported from within, through the structure.
Her abstract period from around 1950 is not the endpoint of a rupture, but the result of a consistent process of reduction. Lines, shapes and colour planes become carriers of rhythm. Her signature lies in the lucidity of the plane and in the way every intervention feels necessary. Works such as “Compositie” (1950 and 1956) or “Evenwicht” (1953) show how drawing and colour calibrate each other with great precision. The balance is strict and yet warm, inviting the viewer to look at her canvases slowly and attentively.
Technically, Bonnet worked with oil on canvas and panel, but equally with gouache and watercolour on paper. In these media she found the right register for transparency, layering and nuance. The surface of her works breathes, with subtle shifts in tone and texture that make the image vibrate without losing its balance. Even in her smaller formats she achieves a monumental clarity, because the image is supported from within, through the structure.
Her abstract period from around 1950 is not the endpoint of a rupture, but the result of a consistent process of reduction. Lines, shapes and colour planes become carriers of rhythm. Her signature lies in the lucidity of the plane and in the way every intervention feels necessary. Works such as “Compositie” (1950 and 1956) or “Evenwicht” (1953) show how drawing and colour calibrate each other with great precision. The balance is strict and yet warm, inviting the viewer to look at her canvases slowly and attentively.
Themes and series: from city plan to pure construction
The transition from figuration to abstraction was not radical in Bonnet’s work, it emerged gradually. In early cityscapes, façades and streets are reduced to rhythms. Later, it is above all the tensions between horizontal and vertical, light and shadow, open and closed that remain. The viewer reads the canvas as an ensemble of forces in which each plane has a clear function.
In oil paintings such as “Compositie” and in works on paper from the mid-1950s (gouaches and watercolours), the surface is constructed from interacting segments of plane. The drawing pulls and anchors, colour modulates and tunes. Attention to edges and in-between spaces prevents decorativeness and keeps the image sharp. A serene rigour emerges that has an almost musical aspect.
The search for the right balance, explicitly perceptible in “Evenwicht” (1953), is a key notion in her oeuvre. Here, silence becomes active, because every plane and every transition carries meaning. Bonnet’s abstract works never become cold. She is driven by rhythm and concentration, with a legibility that invites repeated viewing. Even when motifs have a figurative origin, as in “Medina” (1952), construction takes precedence over anecdote and the experience of space is translated into pictorial equilibrium.
In oil paintings such as “Compositie” and in works on paper from the mid-1950s (gouaches and watercolours), the surface is constructed from interacting segments of plane. The drawing pulls and anchors, colour modulates and tunes. Attention to edges and in-between spaces prevents decorativeness and keeps the image sharp. A serene rigour emerges that has an almost musical aspect.
The search for the right balance, explicitly perceptible in “Evenwicht” (1953), is a key notion in her oeuvre. Here, silence becomes active, because every plane and every transition carries meaning. Bonnet’s abstract works never become cold. She is driven by rhythm and concentration, with a legibility that invites repeated viewing. Even when motifs have a figurative origin, as in “Medina” (1952), construction takes precedence over anecdote and the experience of space is translated into pictorial equilibrium.
Exhibitions, networks and collections
Bonnet belonged to the core of “La Jeune Peinture Belge” between 1945 and 1948 and exhibited several times at the legendary Galerie Apollo in Brussels, which was a focal point of post-war renewal in art. At Expo 58 in Brussels, three of her works from the collection of architect Maurice Houyoux were shown in Pavilion VII, which increased her visibility with a wider audience and confirmed her position as a leading abstract voice.
In 1952, she co-founded the group “Espace”, which opted resolutely for non-figurative painting in Belgium. Within this network, which included Van Lint, Mortier and Bertrand, her consistent refinement of the plane was particularly appreciated. Publications and catalogues, including Marcel Daloze’s “Anne Bonnet, le territoire de la peinture”, document this evolution and situate key works such as “Compositie” (1958).
Her oeuvre is represented in museum and private collections in Belgium and abroad. Recent attention, such as the exhibition at the Marthe Donas Museum in Ittre in 2022–2023, underlines the lasting relevance of her vision. The combination of historical anchoring and formal clarity makes Bonnet a benchmark for lovers and curators of Belgian non-figurative painting.
Group 2 Gallery keeps the oeuvre of Anne Bonnet alive through exhibitions, private viewings and collection support. Available works, from her animist beginnings and rhythmic urban compositions to abstract oil paintings, gouaches and watercolours from her Jeune Peinture Belge and Espace period, are documented with great care. Contact us regarding available works, discreet purchase or sale advice, or a tailored selection.
In 1952, she co-founded the group “Espace”, which opted resolutely for non-figurative painting in Belgium. Within this network, which included Van Lint, Mortier and Bertrand, her consistent refinement of the plane was particularly appreciated. Publications and catalogues, including Marcel Daloze’s “Anne Bonnet, le territoire de la peinture”, document this evolution and situate key works such as “Compositie” (1958).
Her oeuvre is represented in museum and private collections in Belgium and abroad. Recent attention, such as the exhibition at the Marthe Donas Museum in Ittre in 2022–2023, underlines the lasting relevance of her vision. The combination of historical anchoring and formal clarity makes Bonnet a benchmark for lovers and curators of Belgian non-figurative painting.
Group 2 Gallery keeps the oeuvre of Anne Bonnet alive through exhibitions, private viewings and collection support. Available works, from her animist beginnings and rhythmic urban compositions to abstract oil paintings, gouaches and watercolours from her Jeune Peinture Belge and Espace period, are documented with great care. Contact us regarding available works, discreet purchase or sale advice, or a tailored selection.
