Valère Bernard 1860-1936

Valère Bernard was a student of Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1882, where he learned the art of etching from Félicien Rops. In 1888, he settled in Marseille, where he co-founded the journal Zou with the Marseille poet Louis Astruc. He published several novels and collections of poetry and later served as professor of aesthetics at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. He was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1921.

He took part in numerous group exhibitions, including the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon of the Association des Artistes Marseillais, and the Société des Artistes Provençaux. A major retrospective at the Palais Longchamp in Marseille in 1981 brought his work to wider public attention.

A Symbolist artist in every field, he worked for a chromolithographer, joined the Hydropathes literary circle, and practiced occultism in Montparnasse. In 1895, he published Guero, a portfolio of fourteen etchings, as well as Christ in Hell (Christ aux enfers).

Bibliography
Gérald Schurr, in Les Petits Maîtres de la peinture 1820–1920, valeurs de demain, Éditions de l’Amateur, vol. V, Paris, 1981.