Singer at the Café-Concert - Émile Bernard
Archival giclée
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Description
A striking lithograph by Émile Bernard, capturing the dramatic energy of a Parisian café-concert through bold, simplified forms and high-contrast ink work.
This lithograph by Émile Bernard captures the atmosphere of the Parisian café-concert, a popular form of entertainment in the late nineteenth century. Bernard, a contemporary of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, was instrumental in the development of Cloisonnism. This style is characterised by bold forms, flat areas of colour, and dark outlines, which draw inspiration from stained glass and Japanese woodblock prints.
The composition centres on a female performer with arms raised, her figure rendered in a simplified, almost silhouette-like manner. Surrounding her are other figures, including seated patrons and companions, whose forms merge into the shadows of the venue. The use of high-contrast black and white ink creates a sense of drama, reflecting the dim, smoky environment of the cabaret. Bernard avoids realistic modelling in favour of expressive, graphic shapes that convey the energy of the performance.
Unlike the fleeting light effects favoured by the Impressionists, Bernard focuses on the structural arrangement of the scene. The heavy, dark masses of the foreground contrast with the lighter, sketchier details of the background, creating a sense of depth without traditional perspective. This work demonstrates the artist's interest in synthetic art, where the image is constructed from memory and imagination rather than direct observation. The raw, textured quality of the print suggests an experimental approach to the medium, typical of the avant-garde circles in which Bernard moved during his time in Pont-Aven and Paris. It offers a glimpse into the social life of the era, stripped of academic detail and reduced to its essential graphic components.
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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.
Care and materials
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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Care & Cleaning
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
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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 - 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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