The Old Woman from Berkeley
Plate 8 of 8 from the series 'Les Cantilènes', the title of a group of poems by Jean Moréas. This plate illustrates the lines in Moréas' poem 'La vielle femme de Berkeley' from the chapter 'Airs et Récits": 'Son fils et sa fille nuitement vinrent, amenant le Saint-Sacrement'.
[Translation: "Her son and daughter come nightly, bringing the blessed sacrament"]
In 1891–92 Bernard worked on a series of hand-colored zincographs (planographic prints for which a zinc plate instead of a lithographic stone is used as a matrix) intended as illustrations for 'Les Cantilènes', a collection of forty lyrical poems in the medieval manner by the Symbolist author Jean Moréas, first published in 1886.
In 'Livre d'Art' during it's first year of publication (Numbers 2-3, May-July to August 15, 1892) the following announcement appeared:
“On demande des souscripteurs pour un supplement exceptionnel du Livre d’Art se composant de 8 lithographies d’ E. Bernard destinées à illustrer Les Cantilènes de Jean Moréas…il sera tire 25 exemplaires numérotés et signés de l’auteur, du format du Livre d’Art sur papier Japon (365x270)"
The fully bound supplements promised in 1892 were never pulished by 'Livre d'Art'. The titles given to the works in the Morane catalogue raisonné are those that Bernard gave to the plates during the Jacques Doucet sale twenty years later.
[Translation: "Her son and daughter come nightly, bringing the blessed sacrament"]
In 1891–92 Bernard worked on a series of hand-colored zincographs (planographic prints for which a zinc plate instead of a lithographic stone is used as a matrix) intended as illustrations for 'Les Cantilènes', a collection of forty lyrical poems in the medieval manner by the Symbolist author Jean Moréas, first published in 1886.
In 'Livre d'Art' during it's first year of publication (Numbers 2-3, May-July to August 15, 1892) the following announcement appeared:
“On demande des souscripteurs pour un supplement exceptionnel du Livre d’Art se composant de 8 lithographies d’ E. Bernard destinées à illustrer Les Cantilènes de Jean Moréas…il sera tire 25 exemplaires numérotés et signés de l’auteur, du format du Livre d’Art sur papier Japon (365x270)"
The fully bound supplements promised in 1892 were never pulished by 'Livre d'Art'. The titles given to the works in the Morane catalogue raisonné are those that Bernard gave to the plates during the Jacques Doucet sale twenty years later.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Old Woman from Berkeley
- Artist: Emile Bernard (French, Lille 1868–1941 Paris)
- Date: 1892
- Medium: Zincograph printed in sepia
- Dimensions: Plate: 13 1/16 × 7 15/16 in. (33.2 × 20.2 cm)
Sheet: 16 1/8 × 12 13/16 in. (41 × 32.5 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld, 1983
- Object Number: 1983.1217.37
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Multiple artists/makers
1928
Emile Bernard
1887–88
Emile Bernard
January–March 1894
Emile Bernard
Paul Cézanne
1936
Emile Bernard
1892
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