Bernard Buffet (July 10, 1928 - October 4, 1999) was a French painter who was highly acclaimed by the age of twenty. His work had a distinctive sketchy style. It conveyed a sombre mood and mirrored the atmosphere following the Second World War. Bernard Buffet was born in Paris and studied art there at the "Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux arts" (National School of the Fine Arts) and worked in the studio of the painter Narbonne. He remained friends with his classmates, the painters Maurice Boitel and Louis Vuillermoz.
Sustained by the picture-dealer Maurice Garnier, Bernard Buffet worked unceasingly, producing religious pieces, landscapes, portraits and still-lifes. He had at least one major exhibition every year until he committed suicide in 1999 in the provencal village of Tourtour where he was living.
Bernard Buffet was married to the writer Annabel Buffet (née Schwob). One of Buffet's disciples, Jean Claude Gaugy, was the father of Linear Expressionism.
