Bernard Buffet

Artist Biography

A modern French master of painting, lithography and etching, Bernard Buffet entered the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the young age of sixteen. He preferred, however, to spend most of his student hours studying the works of Rembrandt, David and Courbet at the Louvre. Buffet exhibited his initial art, prints and posters at the Paris Salon at age eighteen.

His first original print, a drypoint engraving, was created in 1948. Buffet's first original lithograph dates from 1952 and since that time he dedicated himself almost exclusively to this demanding artistic medium. Buffet's lithographs have for many years been famous throughout the world. His bold and very personal form of expression has placed him among the most sought after and respected contemporary masters of figurative and landscape art, prints and posters.

During the 1960's and early 1970's the Collector's Guild published a number of lithograph art, prints and posters and etchings by leading contemporary French and American artists. This publisher commissioned Buffet for original lithographs on at least two occasions. The Collector's Guild rarely specified the size of their editions but it is known that most of their original prints were published in 500 or less impressions.

Bernard Buffet Art, Prints and Posters Collection