Watercolor "portrait Of A Man" By The Africanist Painter Renée Bernard, 20th Century

Renée Bernard (1906-2004) was a French painter trained at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1947, thanks to a scholarship, she traveled across West Africa for eight months. She visited Senegal, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Mauritania, and Guinea. Her paintings capture African faces, markets, and landscapes bathed in light. Her palette, inherited from the Fauves, was enriched with vibrant colors and intense contrasts. She thus became a leading figure in the French Africanist movement. Her works are exhibited at the Société des Beaux-Arts de la France d'Outre-Mer. She received several distinctions, including prizes from the Institut and the Taylor Foundation. Museums hold her paintings, including the Carnavalet in Paris and Grenoble. A rigorous and sensitive traveler, she gave Africa a central place in her art.