Bernard BUFFET

Bernard Buffet – Life, Lithographs and Original Prints

Bernard Buffet (Paris, 1928 – Tourtour, 1999) was the prodigy of post-war French painting: winner of the Prix de la Critique at twenty, a household name by thirty and the youngest member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts when elected in 1974. His spiky black line, elongated figures and the large, angular signature that cuts across every canvas are recognised instantly. Alongside thousands of paintings he was a committed printmaker, working in drypoint from the late 1940s and in colour lithography at the Mourlot studio from 1952. His clowns, Paris and Venice views, harbours and flower pieces remain among the most collected French prints of the later twentieth century.

Le Coin des Arts offers a considered selection of Buffet’s graphic work: circus lithographs from 1968 such as L’Auguste, Raymond and Le monocycle; Funiculaire (1966); Riviera subjects including Panorama de Saint-Tropez and Le port des pêcheurs (1979); the Venice set of 1986 (Saint-Marc et le Campanile, Le Palais des Doges, Ca’ d’oro); the Dutch view Sloten (1986); and the drypoints Insecte bleu, Insecte brun (1964) and Isola di San Giorgio, Venezia (1985), together with exhibition posters from the Galerie Maurice Garnier. Each sheet is chosen for the quality of the impression, the edition, its provenance and its condition.

Early years: Paris, the Beaux-Arts and the Prix de la Critique

Buffet was born in Paris on 10 July 1928 and grew up in the Batignolles district. He attended the Lycée Carnot, took evening drawing classes during the Occupation and, in December 1943, aged fifteen, passed the entrance examination to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, joining the studio of Eugène Narbonne. Two years later he left to work alone. Things moved quickly: a self-portrait at the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans in 1946, the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne in 1947, the purchase of his Still Life with Chicken by the French State for the Musée National d’Art Moderne, and, in June 1948, a shared Prix de la Critique with Bernard Lorjou. The dealer Emmanuel David of Galerie Drouant-David offered him an exclusive contract almost at once.

The 1950s: fame, Pierre Bergé and a first look from London

Buffet’s gaunt figures, bare interiors and grey still lifes were read as the image of a generation scarred by the war, and the critics coined the term misérabilisme. In 1950 he met Pierre Bergé, who became his partner and managed his affairs until 1958. London noticed him early: his work appeared at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1952 in the exhibition Recent Trends in Realist Painting. In 1955 Connaissance des Arts named him the leading French painter of the post-war generation, and that same year Tate received his large Portrait of the Artist (1954), presented by J. Spreiregen; the collection also holds his intaglio print Holy Face (1953), a religious subject typical of those years. In 1957 David shared his contract with Maurice Garnier, and in 1958, aged thirty, Buffet was given a first retrospective at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris.

Annabel, the château years and the Garnier exhibitions

On 12 December 1958 Buffet married the writer and actress Annabel Schwob at Ramatuelle; she became his constant model, and the couple adopted three children. From 1956 to 1964 they lived at the Château l’Arc near Aix-en-Provence, where in 1961 he painted a cycle on the life of Christ for the chapel, later given to the Vatican Museums. From 1968 Maurice Garnier was his sole dealer, and every February the gallery on the avenue Matignon unveiled a new theme: New York, Venice, the bullfight, flayed figures, Dante’s Inferno, the Netherlands, Don Quixote. This rhythm also shaped his prints: the 1968 lithograph suite Mon cirque and the 1986 Venice portfolio, issued with a text by Annabel, both grew out of these cycles.

Academician, a museum in Japan and the final years

In November 1973 the collector Kiichiro Okano opened the Bernard Buffet Museum at Surugadaira, in Nagaizumi (Shizuoka Prefecture); it now holds more than 2,000 works. On 13 March 1974 Buffet was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in succession to Paul Jouve. He designed French postage stamps (1978 and 1991), illustrated Dante with drypoints (1976) and saw major showings at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage (1991) and at the documenta-Halle in Kassel (1994). Suffering from Parkinson’s disease and no longer able to paint, he took his own life at his house near Tourtour in the Var on 4 October 1999.

Reputation and reappraisal in Britain and France

For decades Buffet’s commercial success counted against him. The tide turned with the major retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (14 October 2016 – 26 February 2017) and, in Britain, with Nicholas Foulkes’s biography Bernard Buffet: The Invention of the Modern Mega-Artist (Preface Publishing, 2016). In autumn 2025 La France de Bernard Buffet at Opera Gallery in New Bond Street was billed as his largest solo exhibition in London for more than fifty years.

Drypoints and lithographs: the printed work and its catalogues

The drypoint, scratched straight into the copper, suited Buffet’s brittle line perfectly; his illustrated books include Lautréamont’s Les Chants de Maldoror (1952) and Jean Giono’s Recherche de la pureté (1953). The engraved work is catalogued by Maurice Rheims, Bernard Buffet graveur 1948-1980 (Éditions d’Art de Francony and Éditions Maurice Garnier, 1983). His lithographs were printed almost entirely at Fernand Mourlot’s workshop, where Charles Sorlier worked with him. The standard references are Mourlot’s Bernard Buffet lithographe 1952-1966 (Paris, 1967; English edition, New York, 1968, with a preface by Georges Simenon) and Sorlier’s two volumes: Bernard Buffet lithographe (1979; nos. 1–325, 1952–1979) and Bernard Buffet lithographe II, 1979-1986 (1987; nos. 326–515). A dealer’s note reading ‘Sorlier 166’ therefore points to Le monocycle from Mon cirque. Later sheets, such as the Don Quixote lithographs of 1989, fall outside these catalogues.

Collecting Bernard Buffet prints: a buyer’s guide

Original lithograph or poster? This is the key question with Buffet. Exhibition posters for the Galerie Maurice Garnier or the salon Les Peintres Témoins de leur Temps were printed lithographically, often in thousands, and are attractive in their own right, but they are not signed, numbered original prints.

Edition and numbering. Most lithographs were pulled in editions of around 100 to 150: Le monocycle is numbered out of 120, the 1986 Ca’ d’oro out of 150. Artist’s proofs (‘EA’) exist and are sought after. See the printing.

Signature. Original prints are signed in pencil in the margin. Be wary of signatures in felt pen or of unusual regularity: see the signature.

Book plates. The Mourlot and Sorlier catalogues each contain unsigned original lithographs that are frequently sold loose; they are worth a fraction of a signed impression.

Paper and condition. Larger sheets are usually on Arches or Rives wove paper. Check the margins, light-staining (Buffet’s colours fade) and foxing, and choose conservation framing.

Fakes and provenance. Buffet is among the most forged names in the print market: photomechanical reproductions with added signatures are common. Ask for the catalogue raisonné number and documented provenance; our authenticity page sets out our guarantees, and our guide what is an original print explains the difference.

Le Coin des Arts selects Buffet’s prints for the freshness of the impression and their condition. To set his work in context, explore Pablo Picasso, Léonard Foujita, Jean Carzou, Gen Paul and Jean Cocteau, whose La Voix humaine Buffet illustrated in 1957, as well as our modern art and engravings and lithographs pages.

Sources and further reading

Nicholas Foulkes, Bernard Buffet: The Invention of the Modern Mega-Artist, Preface Publishing, London, 2016 · Fernand Mourlot, Bernard Buffet: Lithographs 1952-1966, preface by Georges Simenon, New York, 1968 · Charles Sorlier, Bernard Buffet lithographe, 1979, and Bernard Buffet lithographe II, 1979-1986, 1987 · Maurice Rheims, Bernard Buffet graveur 1948-1980, 1983 · Tate – Bernard Buffet · Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris – Bernard Buffet retrospective · Opera Gallery London – La France de Bernard Buffet (2025)