Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) French, "La Seine I" Framed Lithograph. Depicts a view of the river with a tree right on the bank. Signature and date '68 bottom right. 

Overall Size: 27 x 27 in. 

Sight Size: 23 3/4 x 16 18 1/2 in. 

Bernard Buffet was born in 1928 in Paris to a middle-class family, and was a student at the Lycée Carnot during the Nazi occupation of Paris, as well as studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He worked in the studio of the painter Eugène Narbonne where he began producing religious pieces, landscapes, portraits, and still lifes heavily influenced by Francis Gruber. He often painted so-called “Miserabilist” scenes of despair, including scenes of poverty and Holocaust victims, with nearly all the work in his adult life characterized by thick black lines, elongated forms, and a lack of depth of field. He had his first showing in 1946 with at least one major exhibition every year for the next three decades, and by the age of 21 Buffet was already considered one of the greatest stars of the European art world, frequently compared to Pablo Picasso, but in the mid 1960s the public and the art world began to lose interest in him as his lavish lifestyle made him seem out of touch with the struggles of post-war France. Industrialist Pierre Bergé was Buffet’s live-in lover from 1950 to 1958 before leaving him for Yves Saint Laurent the same year Buffet married the writer and actress Annabel Schwob, with whom he adopted three children. His life was plagued by depression and he began to succumb to Parkinson’s in the late 1980s, dying by suicide at his palatial home in Tourtour on October 4th, 1999 after having completed an estimated 8,000 works in total in his lifetime.  

All items are sold AS IS. Lot and condition details are for descriptive purposes only. Sarasota Estate Auction is not responsible for errors and/or omissions of condition. The absence of a condition report does not imply that the lot is perfect or free from wear, flaws, or characteristics of age. Please bid according to your own expertise, or request any additional information and/or photographs you deem necessary.