Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) French painter, etcher and lithographer, was born in Paris and received recognition and a major critical award at only 20 years old. By this time he had already established the very distinctive style for which he has become well known: his use of the elongated spikey figures and dark outlined forms often evoking a mood of loneliness and despair. Buffet's works covered a wide variety of subjects, such as landscapes, cityscapes, portraits and still lifes. Some of his most famous lithographs were of city scenes of Paris and New York and another of Buffet's favorite themes was the Circus and its inhabitants, especially clowns, which he explored in several media. His later works and those in the last years before his death became extremely grim.