Transient being
A childhood cut short by the onset of the Second World War, along with the loss of his mother in 1945, made Bernard Buffet acutely aware, from an early age, of the transient nature of life.
The painter explored the meaning and significance of the human condition, particularly mortality, through various subjects such as the Passion of Christ, the horrors of war, and bullfighting. He also sought to challenge life's ephemeral character by capturing places or moments under his brush. For Bernard Buffet, each work was an act of resistance against impermanence.
His final theme, 'Death,' created while Bernard Buffet knew he was condemned by illness, confronts us with our own finitude. In doing so, the painter offers us a final gift, both rare and precious: the sublime.