Emile Bernard
1868-1941
Two Male Heads (of Saints?)
ca. 1894
12 1/2 x 9 1/16 inches (317 x 231 mm)
Pen and brown ink with graphite on paper.
2009.38
The Joseph F. McCrindle Collection.
© Emile Bernard / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Notes
This drawing in pen and brown ink with traces of graphite presents two heads in profile or possibly two studies for a single head. According to an incription on the verso, which reads "Sainte Marie-Madelaine ...", the figures might be related to a series of lithographs Bernard prepared between 1894 and 1897 of various saints and biblical scenes (Daniel Morane, Emile Bernard: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé. Paris, 2000, no. 38-57, pp. 54-58). The series was in a then recently founded journal in Paris known for religious imagery and printmaking, L'Ymagier. (Deborah Silverman, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art. New York, 2004, p. 450)
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed on verso, in graphite, "Sainte Marie-Madelaine[...]".
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
Catalog link
Department