Autoportrait

1887–1888

An exhibition in the restaurant on the Avenue de Clichy

Back in Paris, Bernard attends the Académie Julian and meets van Gogh, who is impressed by his work. He finds a restaurant on the Avenue de Clichy where his work is shown alongside that of van Gogh, Anquetin and Toulouse-Lautrec; van Gogh calls the group the “School of the Petit Boulevard”.

1888

On foot to Pont-Aven: friendship with Gauguin

A year later Bernard again sets out for Pont-Aven on foot and sees Gauguin; their friendship and artistic partnership quickly grow strong. Bernard wants an art of the most extreme simplicity, accessible to all and practised collectively, and Gauguin is impressed by his ability to put his ideas into words. Other accounts have him living in Pont-Aven in 1886–1888 and joining the Pont-Aven group.

August 1888

Drawings for van Gogh

In August 1888 Bernard sends van Gogh a batch of drawings, acquainting him with his new style. One of them — a lane of trees near the sea with two women talking and some strollers — appears to have inspired the work van Gogh and Gauguin later did on the Allée des Alyscamps in Arles.

1890

A religious crisis and a turn to the Middle Ages

In 1890 Bernard goes through a religious crisis and turns to the subjects and themes of medieval art. In the same year he sets out to revive symbolism, which he saw as Christian in essence — the invisible expressed through the visible.

1891

The break with Gauguin

In 1891 Bernard breaks off his friendship with Gauguin. It was always his great frustration that Gauguin never named him as an influence on pictorial symbolism; one writer says his rivalry with Gauguin led him “out of spite” towards classicism.

1891

Among the Symbolists and the Nabis

In 1891 Bernard joins the group of Symbolist painters that includes Odilon Redon and Ferdinand Hodler, and in the same year becomes a member of the Nabis.