Bernard Buffet was a French painter who attained recognition as an artist when he was very young. By 1948 he had had his first one-man show and received the Prix de la Critique. In the 1950s he was considered the principal figurative artist in Paris. In this phase he was influenced by the miserabilisme movement: his compositions, all grays and dull whites, had a somber mood. Buffet’s subjects have tremendous range, especially in later works, and include still-lifes, interior scenes, and views of such cities as New York, Paris, and London. He has also worked as an illustrator and in 1954 created a series of drypoints on the theme of the Passion. The lithographs he created resemble his paintings. His work appears in many museums, including the Tate Gallery in London and the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. December 12, 1958 Buffet married the writer and actress Annabel Schwob. His daughter Virginie was born in 1962, and his daughter Danielle in 1963. His son Nicolas was born in 1973, the same year that he was named “Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur”. One of Buffet’s disciples, Jean Claude Gaugy, was the father of Linear Expressionism. He now lives in New Mexico with his wife, Cerberus. November 23, 1973 the Bernard Buffet Museum was inaugurated; it was founded by Kiichiro Okano, in Surugadaira, Japan. At the request of the French postal administration in 1978, he designed a stamp depicting the Institut et le Pont des Arts – on this occasion the Post Museum arranged a retrospective of his works. Buffet created more than 8.000 paintings and many prints as well. He committed suicide at his home in Tourtour, Southern France, on October 4, 1999. Buffet was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and was no longer able to work.