| Bernard, Émile (1868-1941) , French postimpressionist painter. Bernard worked closely with French painter Paul Gauguin in developing an expressive painting style that made use of brilliant colors and dark, exaggerated outlines. Many of their paintings were inspired by religious or literary subjects. Bernard also was influenced by the folk art of rural France, where he and Gauguin painted, and by the flat, decorative patterns of Japanese prints. Born in Lille, Bernard moved to Paris in 1878. He later met Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh and French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who shared his interests in Japanese prints and the expressive use of color. In 1888 Bernard joined Gauguin in Pont-Aven, a village in the province of Bretagne in northwestern France. They, along with other painters who joined them, became known as the School of Pont-Aven. The Pont-Aven painters were an important part of the symbolist movement in painting, which emphasized the decorative and symbolic use of color to express emotions rather than to mimic objective reality. Following the example of Japanese prints and of local stained-glass windows, Bernard adopted a simplified design, with flat areas of pure colors outlined in black. The Pont-Aven style is often compared with cloisonné, a type of enamelware in which different colors are separated by thin strips of metal. In 1892, a year after Gauguin left France for Tahiti, Bernard exhibited with a group known as the nabis, who shared his colorful style. But Bernard soon turned away from modern artistic experiments and began to study Byzantine art and other early European religious art. From 1904 until his death in 1941 he published numerous writings on art history and art theory, espousing a return to the artistic ideals of the Renaissance. He also published his correspondence with van Gogh, Gauguin, and other artists. |
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