The Singer

Emile Bernard

1887–88 · Lithograph · Drawings and Prints

Many French artists toward the end of the nineteenth century depicted the performers in cafés and cabarets, and also women in brothels—Toulouse-Lautrec's superb series "Elles" being one of the best-known examples of the latter. In Bernard's image of a singer at one of the outdoor cafés that became the focal points of public life in Paris during the warm months, the artist has created visually the impact of her large, brassy voice through the woman's foursquare stance. Bernard originally drew the singer with arms down, somewhat apart from the body, but then changed their position to an upraised one. This is the solution he eventually opted for, but in this early state of the print, we see the composition still in development.

Artist

Emile Bernard

Date

1887–88

Medium

Lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1975