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.