BERNARD, Joseph - b. 1866 Vienne, d. 1931 Boulogne-sur-Seine

French sculptor. He was the son of a stone mason and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon before moving to Paris, where between 1892 and 1900 he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français works of descriptive realism, frequently tragic in inspiration, such as the life-size Hope Defeated (plaster and marble, 1893; Vienne, Musée des Beaux-Arts). After 1900 he worked towards a greater architectonic rigour and formal purity, as, for example, in the monument to Michel Servet (stone, 1905-11; Vienne, public gardens) and Young Girl with Pitcher (bronze, 1910; Paris, Pompidou), which have similarities with contemporary works by Aristide Maillol.

From 1910 onwards Bernard frequently exhibited at the Salon d’Automne. His major work is the monumental frieze of La Danse (marble, 1913; Paris, Musée d’Orsay). With Georges Lacombe and Maillol he was one of the first 19th-century sculptors to resume the technique of direct carving instead of the common practice of translating a plaster or clay model using mechanical aids. Between 1920 and 1930 he sometimes exhibited with the group Douce France, of which he was the spiritual father.

Joseph Bernard was one of the main exponents of the sculpture generation after Rodin. His artistic working method, which deliberately leaves traces of the work process that add a tactile, incomplete character to his sculptures, had a marked effect on several successive artists.

Turning to Nature

The solid, almost blunt head of a young woman with almond-shaped eyes, the lips closed and gently smiling, the cheeks full, is typical of Joseph Bernard’s oeuvre. What was unusual and new about the bust was that the individual elements were formed simply as the morphological properties of the stone allowed to be: the ears are flat, the forehead even, the neck enlarged. Instead of academic smoothness, the surface of the sculpture is noteworthy for its relative roughness. It reveals the stages of the working process. Form and material together create a natural union.