Couple Standing in Water
1915
Medium
etching printed in red on Japanese paper
Dimensions
plate: 27.5 x 19.9 cm (10 13/16 x 7 13/16 in.) sheet: 31.8 x 25 cm (12 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Frank Anderson Trapp
Accession Number
2003.118.3
Art Historical Context
Émile Bernard's *Couple Standing in Water (1915) is a striking etching printed in vivid red ink on delicate Japanese paper, measuring 27.5 x 19.9 cm on the plate. Created during the tumultuous years of World War I this intimate print captures a pair of figures poised in shallow water, evoking a sense of intimacy and mystery. Bernard, a pioneering French Post-Impressionist and key figure in the Synthetist movement alongside Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, often explored symbolic and emotional themes in his later works, blending bold outlines with flattened forms reminiscent of his earlier Cl...