Joseph Bernard

Joseph Bernard began his studies in Lyon and received a scholarship in 1886 which enabled him to travel to Paris to attend the École des Beaux-Arts. Whilst reference is often made to Auguste Rodin's influence, Bernard never worked in his studio, preferring to work nights at a printing press to finance the early lean years of his career. His fierce independence is reflected in his oeuvre, as he experimented with unconventional techniques such as carving in taille directe and modelling directly in plaster rather than clay. Towards the end of his career, Bernard's own influence on French sculpture had become immense. As one critic of the 1927 Salon d'Automne wrote: 'If all sculptures influenced by Bernard were removed from the galleries, what would there be left?'