time that he wanted to create these pieces. Bernard wrote about his relationship with the style of symbolism in many letters, articles, and statements. He said that it was of a Christian essence, divine language. Bernard believed that it "It is the invisible express by the visible," and those previous attempts of religious symbolism failed. That period of symbolism represented the nature of beauty, but did not find the truth in the beauty. Art until the renaissance was based on the invisible rather than the visible, the idea, not the shapes or concrete. The history of the painting of symbols was spiritual. Everything, meaning symbols, were forgotten with the paganist ideas and doctrines. That is what Bernard was attempting to accomplish with the rebirth of symbolism in 1890. In his idea of the new symbolism, he concentrated on maintaining a grounded art, more authentic in Bernard's mind meant reducing impressionism, not creating an optical trip like Georges-Pierre Seurat, but simplifying the actual symbol. His concept was that through ideas, not technique, the truth is found. Influence It was always Émile Bernard's great frustration that Paul Gauguin never mentioned him as an influence on pictorial symbolism (see for instance his own notes attached to the Belgian edition (1942) of his selected letters, published shortly after his death). In 2001/2002 The Art Institute of Chicago and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam held a joint exhibition:Van Gogh and Gauguin:The Workshop of the South that put Émile Bernard's contribution in perspective. (ref. Druick 2001) One of Émile Bernard's students was the Swedish painter Ivan Aguéli. Works Writings Art criticism Le Moderniste I/14, 27 July 1889, pp. 108 and 110 Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui, no. 387 Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui, no. 390, (1891) reprinted in: Lettres & Recueil (1911), pp. 65–69 La Plume III/57, 1 September 1891, pp. 300–301 (!) La Plume III/64, 15 December 1891, p. 447 Mercure de France VII/40, April 1893, pp. 324–330 reprinted in: Lettres & Recueil (1911), pp. 45–52 Mercure de France VII/44, August 1893, pp. 303–305 reprinted in: Lettres & Recueil (1911), pp. 53–57 dated 10 June 1895 first published in: Lettres & Recueil (1911), pp. 59–63 Notes sur l'école dite de "Pont-Aven" Mercure de France XLVIII, December 1903, pp. 675–682 Mercure de France LXXVI/276, 16 December 1908, pp. 600–616 Lettres de Vincent van Gogh à Émile Bernard & Recueil des publications sur Vincent van Gogh faites depuis son déces par