Melancholy and the Absurd

  

Bernard Buffet (1928 - 1999) painted a series of Clowns that bear comparison with Albrecht Durer's Melencolia (1514). 

Durer's 1514 etching is a rich and complex work and there is a fascinating discussion of it in Wikipedia.  It differs from the Clowns done by Buffet precisely because it is so complex, so allegorical.  Buffet's juxtaposition of the funny man with a tear on his cheek, or the creeping melancholy of that thick eyebrow, seems simpler, less allegorical, less cluttered.  Yet what he depicts keeps resonating... 

Sources

Buffet's images not traced

Durer - britishmuseum.org