Émile Bernard, born April 28, 1868 in Lille and died April 16, 1941 in Paris, was a French painter, printmaker, and writer. A major figure in Post-Impressionism, he was associated with the Pont-Aven school and frequented artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Eugène Boch, and Paul Cézanne. Bernard is recognized for his contributions to Cloisonnism with Louis Anquetin and Paul Gauguin, as well as for his explorations in Synthetism and Symbolism.
After a long stay in Egypt from 1893 to 1904, he adopted a classicism inspired by the old masters. He began engraving wood, copper, and zinc in 1886 and collaborated with the publisher Ambroise Vollard from 1915 to illustrate luxury works, producing more than two thousand woodcuts during his career. Excluded from Fernand Cormon's studio in 1886, he traveled to Normandy and Brittany, met Émile Schuffenecker, and settled in Pont-Aven, where he initiated cloisonnism. After losing his family's financial support, he moved to Lille in 1889, then returned to Paris in 1890, participating in the Rosicrucian salons and exhibitions of Impressionist and Symbolist painters.
