Émile Bernard (1868-1941) Crucifixion. 1891-1892. Woodcut. 150 x 350. I.F.F. 1; Stein-Karshan 4; Morane 27. Very fine proof on ivory laid paper, unsigned. Edges yellowed. All margins untrimmed. Edition of 100 proofs for L'Estampe originale (dry stamp: Lugt 819). Stamp R. T. "Published in the fifth album of André Marty's Estampe originale in 1894, i.e. after Emile Bernard's departure for Constantinople and Cairo, the Crucifixion certainly dates from 1890-1891. Highly synthesized, with the emphasis on the essential, Christ tied to the cross (and not nailed, as in traditional iconography), this engraving is reminiscent of the 1890 Pieta in its subject matter and archaism [...] His taste for medieval art led Bernard to push the deformation of the bodies to the extreme, in an almost expressionist spirit. Richard Field and Jacquelynn Baas have rightly noted that the distortion of the wooden board (which seeks to give the impression of a medieval incunabulum) recalls that of the catalog for the Van Gogh exhibition at Le Barc de Boutteville in 1891; they also note that the format of the Crucifixion is very close to that of the Wood: Bernard may have been thinking of publishing his work in his magazine." (M. Grivel, ed., Gauguin et l'École de Pont-Aven, exhibition catalog, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1989, p. 55).