BUFFET Bernard - Original engraving "Paris, Place de la Bastille" 55x75cm - 1970

This original engraving created in 1970 by Bernard Buffet depicts the Place de la Bastille in Paris, one of the iconic locations in the French capital. The artist displays his immediately recognizable graphic language, based on a dense network of incisive lines that structure the space and give the scene a visual tension characteristic of his work.
At the center of the composition rises the July Column, a commemorative monument dominating the square. Buffet emphasizes its verticality with a rigorous, almost architectonic graphic treatment that organizes the perspective of the scene. Around this focal point, the Parisian buildings and rows of trees are described by a grid of crossed lines that enliven the surface and convey the urban atmosphere with remarkable intensity. This mesh of lines, typical of the artist's style, gives the city a presence that is both structured and vibrant.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Bernard Buffet dedicated several works to urban landscapes and monuments in Paris. These compositions reflect his interest in the city as a visual stage where architecture, memory, and modernity converge. The Place de la Bastille, a place steeped in history and a major symbol of the French Revolution, receives a precise and expressive graphic interpretation under his hand.
The print was pulled on BFK Rives paper, a support highly valued for the quality of its texture and its ability to reproduce the finesse of the cuts. It was published by the prestigious Lacourière-Frélaut workshops as well as by the Maurice Garnier Gallery in Paris, two major references in the printmaking of the 20th century. The work is numbered and signed in pencil by the artist, and appears in the catalogue raisonné of Bernard Buffet's engravings under number 66, guaranteeing its authenticity and its importance in the artist's engraved production.
With its iconic Parisian subject, the graphic mastery that characterizes Bernard Buffet's hand, and the quality of its edition, this engraving is a remarkable testimony to the artist's perspective on the French capital at the turn of the 1970s. It fully illustrates the expressive power of his line and his unique approach to urban landscapes, where the rigor of construction dialogues with an intense graphic energy.