Looking to the past
L’Ymagier’s interest in religious Épinal and medieval woodcuts was rooted in a fervent desire to achieve a more authentic form of modern art. For Jarry, archetypal Christian symbols, such as the Passion and the Virgin Mary, possessed universal meaning of continued importance to contemporary artists.
This interest in the past was shared by the artists of the School of Pont-Aven, who looked to the traditions and rituals of the Breton peasants for creative inspiration.
Armand Séguin, Lying Girl (Spring) )(Femme couchée (La primavera)) from the journal L'Ymagier (januari 1895), 1895
Emile Bernard and L’Ymagier
Emile Bernard contributed extensively to L’Ymagier, producing prints that resembled medieval religious woodcuts.
Yet despite their archaic appearance, the artist’s prints were not isolated from the most contemporary artistic currents in literature and poetry. His composition, Herodiade for example, is likely indebted to Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem of the same name.
Emile Bernard, Herodias (Hérodiade), 1897
Further reading
- Caroline Boyle-Turner, The Prints of the Pont-Aven School: Gauguin and his Circle in Brittany, Lausanne 1986
- Daniel Morane and Laure Harscoët-Maire, Emile Bernard, 1868-1941: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé, Pont-Aven 2000
- Alastair Brotchie, Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life, Boston 2011