Christian Bérard: A Theatrical Man

Christian Bérard (1902–1949) is one of my favourite fashion illustrators, for his wonderful airy touch – his paintbrush hardly seems to skim the surface – the carefree, gestural lines, and the light and minimal colour palette.

Yet the Frenchman, nicknamed Bébé by his friends, was more than that: he was also a painter, a theatre set and costume designer, a book illustrator, and he even designed textiles and interiors. A social butterfly, he was the darling of Paris in the 1920s and 30s.

Bérard at work in the Vogue Paris office, 1937, ph. Roger Schall

A popular man, witty, charming and kind-hearted, Bérard lived large through heady times and left a great legacy.

Bérard was most famous for the set and costume design of Jean Cocteau’s (a life-long friend) film La Belle et la Bête, but he also designed the sets and costumes for ballet and the theatre. And like many artists before and after him, he turned to commercial illustration work when he required income, contributing to magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He also worked as a fashion illustrator for Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Nina Ricci.

A truly theatrical man, Bérard never lost his sense of childlike wonder: he loved carnivals, street fairs and dressing up – creating costumes for parties at the drop of a hat. A popular man, witty, charming and kind-hearted, Bérard lived large through heady times and left a great legacy. Somewhat fittingly, he died while at work at the theatre: giving some final instructions to the director Louis Jouvet and some actors, he stood and said, “Well, that’s that,” upon which he collapsed from a cerebral embolism.

One of the actors present, Jean-Louis Barrault wrote after his death: If I had to choose only one among the many impressions of Christian Bérard that spring to mind, it would be one that soon became for him a profession of faith: the joy of living, to the extent of perishing from that joy … It is as if, while I think intensely of him, all of the Bérards leaping about me reply:

‘Love of life is based on suffering, anguish, nostalgia, sorrow and sadness … that’s true, but all that is the source of joy.’ [Venetian Red]

For a more thorough biography, visit Venetian Red and read Christine Cariati’s excellent story on the artist.

Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1932