1893
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Paul Sérusier is a 1893 by Émile Bernard, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in a dark suit sits stiffly, hands folded, staring straight at you. Behind him, a scribbled note says the picture was made in Italy in 1893. This is Paul Sérusier, a fellow painter and friend of the artist. They traveled to Italy together to study old paintings, and swapped portraits as souvenirs. The note in the background feels like a postcard—proof they were there. If you like this quiet, direct style, look up the technique called *sfumato*.
Throughout his career, Émile Bernard made numerous portraits of his friends and colleagues, including this image of the painter Paul Sérusier. The two artists traveled to Florence in 1893 to study Renaissance painting and exchanged portraits of one another while they were there. Bernard portrayed his friend formally, presenting him frontally alongside a notation that the drawing was made during his Italian travels.
The subject of this portrait, Émile Bernard, was known as "the Nabi with the red beard" for his distinctive facial hair.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Émile Henri Bernard (French pronunciation: ; 28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul Cézanne.
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