Singer at the Café-Concert and The Harvesters - Émile Bernard
Archival giclée
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Description
A striking zincograph by Émile Bernard featuring two contrasting scenes, rendered in the bold, simplified style of the Cloisonnist movement.
This zincograph by Émile Bernard presents two distinct scenes side by side, reflecting the artist's experimentation with the Cloisonnist style during the late 1880s. Bernard, a contemporary of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, sought to move away from the optical realism of Impressionism in favour of simplified forms and bold, flat areas of tone.
The left panel, 'Singer at the Café-Concert', captures the atmosphere of Parisian nightlife. The central figure of the performer is rendered with heavy, dark contours, her arms raised in a dramatic gesture. The surrounding audience is suggested through abbreviated shapes, emphasising the theatricality of the environment rather than photographic detail.
The right panel, 'The Harvesters' (Les Moissonneurs), shifts the focus to rural labour. Here, the composition is rotated, with the figures of the workers appearing to lean into the frame. The forms are again reduced to their essential outlines, a hallmark of Bernard's approach to printmaking. By using the zincographic process, Bernard achieved a stark, high-contrast aesthetic that mimics the appearance of woodcut prints.
These works demonstrate the artist's interest in the synthesis of memory and observation. By flattening the pictorial space and prioritising graphic clarity, Bernard created images that function as decorative arrangements as much as representational scenes. The lack of traditional perspective and the emphasis on silhouette allow the viewer to focus on the rhythmic quality of the lines and the balance of light and shadow. This print serves as an example of the stylistic shifts occurring within the Pont-Aven school, where artists rejected naturalism to explore more symbolic and expressive modes of representation.
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Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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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
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- 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
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
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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
Singer at the Café-Concert and The Harvesters - 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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