Emile Bernard

Born: Lille, 28 April 1868

Died: Paris, 15 April 1941

Nationality: French


Works by this Artist

Breton Women in the Meadow
Emile Bernard, 1888

Background

son of a cloth merchant

Studies

Workshop of Fernand Cormon (1884-86)

Career

1884 – studies alongside Louis Anquetin and Toulouse-Lautrec at the Atelier Cormon

1886 – becomes acquainted with Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh

1887 – exhibition with Vincent van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec at the Grand Restaurant-Bouillon

1888 – paintings alongside Paul Gauguin at Pont-Aven

1889 – exhibits Cloisonnist paintings at the Café Volpini near the Exposition universelle

1892 – Bernard organizes the first French retrospective exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's work; exhibits at the Salon de la Rose+Croix

1893 - moves to Cairo (until 1903)

1905 – Bernard founds the art journal Aesthetic Renovation

1910 - publishes Fundamental and Traditional Aesthetics According to the Masters of All Eras

Travels

Italy (1893); Egypt (1893-1903); Venice (1903-04)

Important Artworks

Bathers with a Red Cow , 1887 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Self-Portrait with Portrait of Gauguin in the Background , 1888 (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)

Madeleine in the Bois d'Amour , 1888 (Musée d'Orsay)

Hashish Smoker , 1900 (Musée d'Orsay)

Readings

Luthi, Jean-Jacques. Emile Bernard: catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint. Paris: Editions SIDE, 1982 (in French)

Stevens, Mary Anne, et. al. Emile Bernard, 1868-1941: a Pioneer of Modern Art. Exhibition catalogue. Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 1990

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