Pictorial initial (page 108) from Les Petites Fleurs de St. François (The Little Flowers of St. Francis)
Émile Bernard
French, 1868–1941
1928
A printed page from Émile Bernard’s 1928 edition of Les Petites Fleurs de Saint François in which Bernard carved and printed a woodcut pictorial initial to introduce the chapter and fuse image with text.
Your eye is caught by a warm-brown woodcut initial at the left—a praying friar folded into a curling, plantlike letter that sits against crisp Roman type and the creamy, deckled edge of handmade paper.
The work links medieval illuminated‑manuscript practice with modern woodcut revival, exemplifying early 20th‑century artisanal bookmaking that married avant‑garde aesthetics to devotional, hand‑crafted publication.
Medium
One from an illustrated book with 329 woodcuts
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 3 5/16 × 2 13/16" (8.4 × 7.2 cm); page: 12 13/16 × 9 13/16" (32.5 × 25 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
677.1964.88
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
