Bernard LORJOU (1908-1986). Portrait of Harlequin. Oil on canvas signed lower right. Height : 73 cm - Width : 60 cm Provenance: auction by Maître Blache in Versailles, December 2, 1973. Note: a painter deeply attached to figuration, he often took a stand against abstraction, defending a vigorous, committed style. Supported by critic Jean Bouret, he founded the anti-abstraction movement "L'Homme témoin de son temps" with Yvonne Mottet, Paul Rebeyrolle, Gaston Sébire and Michel Thompson. His style, marked by late Expressionism, blends intense colors and energetic gestures to create sometimes dreamlike scenes, where reality takes on a symbolic dimension. Fascinated by the world of theater, he drew on certain emblematic figures from the Commedia dell'Arte, notably the Harlequin, whom he revisits with a dramatic force and plastic freedom characteristic of his work. In the 1950s, he was one of the best-known and most quoted painters, along with Bernard Buffet, Jean Carzou and Alfred Manessier.