Portrait of Paul Sérusier - Émile Bernard
Archival giclée
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Description
A 1893 watercolour portrait of the artist Paul Sérusier by his contemporary Émile Bernard, captured during their time in Florence.
This portrait depicts the artist Paul Sérusier, a figure associated with the Nabis group and a close associate of Émile Bernard. Executed in 1893 during Bernard's time in Florence, the work demonstrates the artist's engagement with the aesthetic principles of the late nineteenth-century French avant-garde. Bernard, who was instrumental in the development of Cloisonnism, employs a restrained palette and simplified forms here. The application of watercolour allows for a degree of transparency, yet the structural integrity of the subject remains clear through deliberate, rhythmic brushwork.
The composition focuses on the head and shoulders of Sérusier, who is presented in a three-quarter view. His gaze is directed away from the viewer, suggesting a contemplative state. The treatment of the beard and hair shows a focus on linear pattern, a characteristic often observed in Bernard's graphic work from this period. The background is rendered in flat, muted tones, which serves to isolate the figure and draw attention to the facial features and the specific texture of the subject's beard.
Bernard's approach to portraiture during this decade moved away from the strict naturalism of his earlier training. Instead, he favoured a synthesis of observation and decorative arrangement. The inscription at the bottom of the sheet provides clear provenance regarding the subject, the artist, and the location of its creation. This piece offers an insight into the personal and professional networks of the artists working within the orbit of Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school. It remains a study of a peer, captured with a directness that avoids unnecessary embellishment, reflecting the artistic priorities of the era.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
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Materials & Sizing
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
Portrait of Paul Sérusier - 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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