The Artist's Grandmother

The Artist's Grandmother (1887) by Émile Bernard, now in the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, depicts female figures in a manner characteristic of the artist's approach to figural subject matter, engaging with the conventions of genre painting and social observation in the late 19th century. Émile Bernard played a crucial but contested role in the Post-Impressionist revolution. His development of Cloisonnism at Pont-Aven and his close dialogue with both Gauguin and Van Gogh place him at the intersection of multiple avant-garde developments, yet he later claimed greater credit for the Synthetist movement than most historians allow.

Bernard developed Cloisonnism — flat areas of strong color enclosed within dark outlines, inspired by medieval enamelwork and Japanese woodblock prints. His palette is bold and non-naturalistic, and his handling of paint is flat and summary.