The most striking feature of the earliest painting by Emile Bernard (1868–1941) in the Van Gogh Museum’s collection is a composition consisting almost entirely of the depiction of water. Our only points of reference are a rowing boat and, directly behind it, the silhouette of a fisherman wearing a top hat, just within the picture frame. Even the horizon disappears from view. To the right of the waterlogged boat, we are afforded a partial glimpse of the quay on which the fisherman is sitting.
Run-down appearance
The young Bernard must have observed such a scene on the Seine near Asnières, just northwest of Paris. Asnières had been his home since 1884 and he spent a lot of time on the riverbank there. The river figures in many of the paintings Bernard produced during the initial stages of his career, as well as in the surviving early drawings and sketches. The drawings frequently feature a fisherman characterized by a somewhat pitiful and run-down appearance . The portrayal of the fisherman’s drooping shoulders and solitary presence in the painting expresses the same mood as in the sketches. While the top hat may seem chic from a contemporary viewpoint, nothing could be further from the truth. During the nineteenth century, even paupers wore hats and were depicted that way.
Emile Bernard, Sketch of a fisherman from the album L’enfance d’un peintre (p. 81), c. 1885, black ink on paper, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen