Lot Essay
Béatrice Recchi-Altarriba a confirmé l’authenticité de cette oeuvre.
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Nature morte aux fruits
Details
Émile Bernard (1868-1941)
Nature morte aux fruits
signé et daté 'Emile Bernard 1894' (en bas à gauche)
huile sur toile
31 x 43 cm.
Peint en 1894
signed and dated 'Emile Bernard 1894' (lower left)
oil on canvas
12 ¼ x 17 in.
Painted in 1894
Nature morte aux fruits
signé et daté 'Emile Bernard 1894' (en bas à gauche)
huile sur toile
31 x 43 cm.
Peint en 1894
signed and dated 'Emile Bernard 1894' (lower left)
oil on canvas
12 ¼ x 17 in.
Painted in 1894
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
Collection particulière, Paris (par descendance).
Puis par descendance au propriétaire actuel.
Collection particulière, Paris (par descendance).
Puis par descendance au propriétaire actuel.
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Further Details
Nature morte aux fruits pourrait aisément s’intégrer dans le corpus de toiles, peintes à Pont-Aven dans le sillage des recherches menées avec Paul Gauguin. Utilisant un cadrage en surplomb, une perspective contractée, disposant sa coupe de fruits sur une table traitée en aplats de couleurs, Émile Bernard est ici parfaitement fidèle aux leçons du synthétisme pont-avénien. En réalité, la présente œuvre est le résultat d’un peintre en rupture avec ses amis des années héroïques. Depuis juin 1893, Bernard a quitté la France pour Constantinople, en un long périple qui le mènera à Samos puis à Smyrne. En août de la même année, il repart pour l’Égypte, en passant par Jérusalem, Jaffa, Alexandrie, pour arriver au Caire en octobre-novembre 1894. Cette «fuite en Égypte» selon la belle formule de Fred Leeman, répond, pour Émile Bernard, à la nécessité de reconstruire tant sa vie personnelle que sa peinture; se sentant trahi par ses pairs qui ne reconnaissent pas en lui le véritable inventeur de l’École de Pont-Aven, Bernard se cherche, en prenant appui sur ses acquis. Tempérant son synthétisme radical des années de jeunesse, il alterne des toiles typiquement Cézanniennes, comme le faisait trois ans plus tôt le nabis Paul Sérusier, avec des compositions plus pont-avénienne comme le présent tableau. Le peintre réintroduit toutefois ici des effets de lumière, ponctuant les fruits et le plat d’habiles reflets blancs. Cette nature morte, composée autour de seulement quelques couleurs revêt aussi, peut-être, une dimension symbolique; Émile Bernard, en proie à de graves difficultés financières, noue au Caire une relation amoureuse avec une jeune libanaise du nom d’Hanenah. Les deux grenades, traditionnels symboles de la fécondité, prendraient alors le sens des maternités à venir.
Gilles Genty, historien de l’art.
This painting could certainly be part of the body of work done in Pont-Aven, following the artist’s experiments alongside Paul Gauguin. Framed from above, with a tight perspective, the fruit bowl arranged on a table rendered with solid flat areas of colour, here Émile Bernard has been entirely faithful to the synthetist style developed in Pont-Aven. In fact, it is the work of a painter who had broken ties with his friends from his halcyon years. In June 1893, Bernard left France for Constantinople, on an extended trip that would take him to Samos and then Smyrne. In August of the same year, he departed for Egypt via Jerusalem, Jaffa and Alexandria, arriving in Cairo in October-November 1894. This “escape to Egypt”, as Fred Leeman elegantly puts it, was a way for Émile Bernard to rebuild both his personal life and his painting. Feeling betrayed by his peers, who had failed to acknowledge him as the real inventor of the Pont-Aven School, Bernard needed to find himself, using what he had learned so far. Tempering the radical synthetism of his younger years, he alternated between painting typically Cézannian canvasses, as the Nabis artist Paul Sérusier had done three years before, and more Pont- Aven-style compositions, like the one we have here. In our painting, however, the artist has reintroduced some light effects, dotting the fruit and dish with masterful white glints. This still life, which is composed of just a few colours, may also have a symbolic dimension. Mired in financial difficulties, whilst in Cairo Émile Bernard became romantically involved with a young Lebanese woman called Hanenah. The two pomegranates, a fruit which traditionally symbolises fertility, could therefore be interpreted as a nod to the family they would go on to create.
Gilles Genty, art historian.
Gilles Genty, historien de l’art.
This painting could certainly be part of the body of work done in Pont-Aven, following the artist’s experiments alongside Paul Gauguin. Framed from above, with a tight perspective, the fruit bowl arranged on a table rendered with solid flat areas of colour, here Émile Bernard has been entirely faithful to the synthetist style developed in Pont-Aven. In fact, it is the work of a painter who had broken ties with his friends from his halcyon years. In June 1893, Bernard left France for Constantinople, on an extended trip that would take him to Samos and then Smyrne. In August of the same year, he departed for Egypt via Jerusalem, Jaffa and Alexandria, arriving in Cairo in October-November 1894. This “escape to Egypt”, as Fred Leeman elegantly puts it, was a way for Émile Bernard to rebuild both his personal life and his painting. Feeling betrayed by his peers, who had failed to acknowledge him as the real inventor of the Pont-Aven School, Bernard needed to find himself, using what he had learned so far. Tempering the radical synthetism of his younger years, he alternated between painting typically Cézannian canvasses, as the Nabis artist Paul Sérusier had done three years before, and more Pont- Aven-style compositions, like the one we have here. In our painting, however, the artist has reintroduced some light effects, dotting the fruit and dish with masterful white glints. This still life, which is composed of just a few colours, may also have a symbolic dimension. Mired in financial difficulties, whilst in Cairo Émile Bernard became romantically involved with a young Lebanese woman called Hanenah. The two pomegranates, a fruit which traditionally symbolises fertility, could therefore be interpreted as a nod to the family they would go on to create.
Gilles Genty, art historian.
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