ÉMILE BERNARD

The authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the Wildenstein Institute, Paris, 10 May 2007. It will be included in the catalogue critique currently in preparation.

Provenance:
- Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
- Robert de Galéa, Paris, received by descent from the above.
- Marquis de Bollin, Paris.
- Gallery Nicole Bertagna, Paris.
- Josefowitz collection, acquired from the above in June 1957.
- Auction Christie's, Paris, 25 May 2007, lot 56.
- German collection, acquired at the above auction.

Exhibited:
Los Angeles 1991, Monet to Matisse: a Century of Art in France from Southern California Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 9 June–11 August 1991, p. 78 (with ill.).

Literature:
- Jean-Jacques Luthi and Armand Israël: Emile Bernard, Instigateur de l'Ecole de Pont-Aven, precurseur de l'Art Moderne - Sa Vie, son Œuvre, Catalogue raisonné, Paris 2014, p. 140, no. 20 (with ill.).
- Jean-Jacques Luthi: Emile Bernard, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris 1982, p. 6, no. 25 (with ill.).
- Weltkunst no. 05/2008, p. 60 (with ill.).

Moving carriages and passers-by in the painting ‘Le Jardin public à Mayenne’ by Emile Bernard reveal a glimpse of day-to-day life in the park of the French city of Mayenne. The painting’s combination of vibrant, luminous colours and pointillist style clearly draw references to Impressionism. At the same time, formulations of a new style, Synthetism, can already be detected in the work. The bold contours, the pronounced two-dimensionality and the cropping of the scene are characteristic of the painting of the Pont-Aven School, which emerged in the late 1880s around Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin and Louis Anquetin and generated the synthetic style. Thus this urban early work ‘Le Jardin public à Mayenne’ forms a bridge within the artistic development of Emile Bernard.

In 1884 Bernard joined the studio of the artist Fernard Cormon in Paris, where he formed important contacts. There, in addition to the two painters Louis Anquetin and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, he met Vincent van Gogh, with whom he formed a stimulating friendship. By 1886 differing artistic convictions led to a rupture between Bernard and his teacher Cormon and the young painter was forced to leave the studio. From that time onwards, Emile Bernard was searching for expanded possibilities of pictorial expression and began a new chapter far away from the Impressionism of Paris. Departing from the capital, he set forth on foot to Brittany and Normandy. During that time, Bernard was in open search for artistic and literary exchange and became acquainted with new traditions.

The present work, ‘Le Jardin public à Mayenne’, demonstrates Bernard's existing stylistic diversity and the artist’s joy of experimentation. The painting was created on his six-month journey towards Pont-Aven in the south of Brittany, its final destination where Paul Gauguin was staying at the time. There, Gauguin became aware of Bernard's new pictorial language and an inspiring, albeit conflict-ridden, collaboration began between the two artists that would be of crucial importance in the development of modern art.