Les Bretonneries: Wedding in Brittany - Émile Bernard
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Description
A 1889 lithograph by Émile Bernard depicting a traditional Breton wedding scene, characterised by the simplified forms and bold silhouettes of the Cloisonnist movement.
This lithograph by Émile Bernard captures a scene of rural life in Brittany, a region that held a particular fascination for the artist during his formative years. Executed in 1889, the work reflects the stylistic innovations of the Pont-Aven school, where Bernard, alongside Paul Gauguin, experimented with simplified forms and bold, flat areas of colour. The composition is structured around the distinct silhouettes of the Breton figures, whose traditional costumes and coiffes are rendered with minimal detail, prioritising the overall shape over anatomical precision.
The scene is divided into two primary zones. In the foreground, a seated figure viewed from behind provides a sense of scale, while a profile study of a woman in a bonnet occupies the lower right corner, creating a layered perspective. The background features a gathering of figures beneath the heavy, dark forms of trees, which are depicted with a graphic, almost decorative quality. This approach to space, where the background elements press forward against the figures, is a hallmark of the Cloisonnist style. Bernard uses the lithographic medium to exploit the contrast between the stark black ink and the paper surface, creating a rhythmic arrangement of light and shadow.
By focusing on the communal rituals of the Breton people, Bernard moves away from the academic traditions of his time. The work avoids excessive detail, opting instead for a synthesis of memory and observation. The figures are reduced to their essential outlines, a technique that influenced the development of modern printmaking. This print offers a glimpse into the artistic climate of late nineteenth-century France, where the search for a more direct and expressive visual language led artists to the rugged coast of Brittany.
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Specific Features
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Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Les Bretonneries: Wedding in Brittany - Émile Bernard
Artist Biography
Emile Bernard
He was raised by his grandmother, who owned a laundry in Lille, because his younger sister was ill and required his parents' full attention. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris but was expelled for insubordination. At the Academie Cormon he met Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh; his friendship with Van Gogh produced some of the most important letters in art history.
Bernard and Gauguin fell out definitively in 1891 over the paternity of Symbolism and cloisonnism. Bernard believed he had been written out of the story, which he had. He spent years writing criticism and art history to set the record straight, producing first-hand accounts of the period that remain primary sources.
His later work turned conservative. He travelled to Egypt, studied the Old Masters, and repudiated the avant-garde experiments of his youth. The early paintings, made between 1886 and 1897 when he was barely out of his teens, are the ones that matter. He was brilliant too young and spent the rest of his career looking backwards. His correspondence with Van Gogh, preserved and published, is one of the most direct records of how two young painters in the 1880s thought about colour, composition and what painting was for.
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