NARRATOR:
Beginning in the late 1880s, Emile Bernard made several extended trips to Brittany. He and other artists, including van Gogh and Gauguin, painted there. They felt that the coastal villages represented an ideal, pastoral life, uncorrupted by modernism and industrialization found in Paris. The idea of craft—building a cupboard like this by hand—was very attractive to Bernard and his colleagues. Bernard didn’t sand the surface, so you can see exactly how he moved his chisel to carve out the figures. Just as the images celebrate the culture of Brittany, so does Bernard’s physical act of carving them.
Bernard found piety, beauty and dignity in the traditional Breton costumes, and the people’s connection to the land. These harvesters are bound to the endless cycle of nature, as their ancestors had been for generations. The strong lines, flattened forms and shallow space may remind you of medieval stained glass, furthering the idea of timelessness. The rough-hewn surface of the wood and the simple, traditional images on this cupboard are a marked contrast to the fashionable café culture of Paris, so popular with the Impressionists just a decade or two earlier.
Bernard is best remembered as a painter and print-maker -- wood carving and cabinet-making were not his primary pursuits. But this cupboard was built for his sister Madeleine, and it was used by the family for many years.
Cupboard
1891-1893
Émile Bernard (French, 1868-1941)
On View
Like Gauguin and the other Synthetists, Bernard admired folk art, particularly the crafts of Brittany. Increasingly drawn to Catholic mysticism in the early 1890s, he regarded the Bretons’ religious faith with reverence. Adorned with flowers, trees, and women picking apples in a kind of Breton Eden, this cabinet exemplifies Bernard’s desire to return art to its origins in craft, creating a beautiful and meaningful object for everyday use. Although the original purpose or source of the commission is unknown, this cabinet is likely the same mentioned by the artist’s sister, Madeleine, in her letters; it remained in the Bernard family until the 1920s.
Details
- Artist Name: Émile Bernard (French, 1868-1941)
- Title: Cupboard
- Date: 1891-1893
- Medium: Carved and painted wood
- Dimensions: 95 x 59 x 20 in. (241.3 x 149.9 x 50.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, from the Estate of Jennifer Jones Simon
- Accession Number: M.2010.1.166.S
Object Information
Possibly Commissioned by the Count de Rochefoucault in 1888;
Returned to the artist;
Michael-Ange Bernard-Fort, (son of artist,1906-1992), Paris;
Mrs. Clément Altarriba (née Émilienne, called Elisabeth, daughter of artist, 1907-1993);
[Sylvia Blatas, Paris];
Norton Simon, by bequest to;
Jennifer Jones Simon Art Trust, to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation
Returned to the artist;
Michael-Ange Bernard-Fort, (son of artist,1906-1992), Paris;
Mrs. Clément Altarriba (née Émilienne, called Elisabeth, daughter of artist, 1907-1993);
[Sylvia Blatas, Paris];
Norton Simon, by bequest to;
Jennifer Jones Simon Art Trust, to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation
The Nabis
- Norton Simon Museum, 1992-09-24 to 1993-07-18
- Mornand, Pierre, Emile Bernard et ses amis: van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Odilon Redon, 1957, p. 32
- Emile Bernard: Målningar, akvareller, teckningar, grafik, 1968,
- Jaworska, Wladyslawa, Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School, 1972, p. 26
- Luthi, Jean-Jacques, Emile Bernard, L'Initiateur, 1974, p. 22
- Luthi, Jean-Jacques, Emile Bernard: Chef de l'ecole de Pont-Aven, 1976, pp. 7, 12
- Stevens, Mary Anne, et al., Emile Bernard 1868-1941 A Pioneer of Modern Art, 1990, pp. 339-340, 352-353
- Cariou, André, Les Peintres de Pont-Aven, 1995, p. 91
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1513 p. 415
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