A daughter posted the following message and photo on twitter and was amazed at the reaction it got.
Help Twitter! Last work of my father before he suffered a stroke, losing the ability to draw and talk, pretty much his 2 sole interests in life. Only thing that could give him joy: 2 see it exposed and seen by as many people as possible. #stroke #art #creation #museum #gallery
Anne Boyere posted the above message on the 17th November where she shared the story about her father’s artwork entitled Creation. The social media storm that followed has completely surprised the family.
Her father is Paris-born artist Bernard Tardieu.
Bernard comes from a long line of artists and he is very proud of his ancestry and heritage. The first Tardieu, according to Anne, was called Nicola-Henry Tardieu who was an engraver to King Louis XIV.
Bernard specialised in anatomy and was a medical illustrator with such works as The Essentials series (Hemodialysis), ECG, Pacemakers and Echocardiography, all published at first with the editors Maloine and then later under his own name as The Tardieu Series. Bernard used to attend surgical procedures so that he could correctly replicate the images in his artwork. These books can still be purchased today and are a well respected source of information .
Bernard suffered a stroke in October 2013 just before his 83rd birthday. The stroke left Bernard without the ability to draw or speak. Bernard was able to make it understood that he would like to have his work published and exposed . Bernard’s last piece of work before his stroke was entitled “Creation”. Creation was initially designed for children to see and he hoped it would spark an interest in the natural world. Originally Anne thought it would be good if the artwork could find a place in a museum or in schools so that her father’s wish could come true. The artwork was created using pencil, ink and water colour. The following photo shows Bernard in the Summer of 2013 at an exhibition working on the piece shortly before his stroke.
The family considered an exhibition but with the difficulty of distance between the two families, Anne living in England and Bernard in France. With the fact that Anne had four children to look after just made this task impossible. Anne felt that she still wanted to carry out her father’s wish and get his piece out to the world and be seen as he had wanted.
Anne turned to social media, where she posted on twitter her pleas for help. Anne hoped that with her appeal someone may be able to help with getting the piece into a museum or that someone in a school may spot it and be able to use it. Never in her wildest dreams could she expect what has happened. Her post has been retweeted more than 16600 times and received over 24000 likes in just a few short days.
Anne and her family are now looking into a crowd funding project whereby they can get the piece turned into a poster and distributed to schools for free. How amazing ! To read more about this and to see how this is progressing Anne will be updating via Facebook and Twitter .
For Bernard the knowledge that people have recognised his work has been fantastic and Anne has said that her family are really happy with the reaction. For Anne being able to carry out her father’s wish must be every daughter’s dream and being able to see his reaction must be a truly inspirational thing. Anne is really keen for this story to be told and for Creation to get the publicity and recognition it so deserves. Reading the responses to the social media there have been so many positive comments about the piece from all over the world and here at Banana Crumble we would like to help this story travel further so please share this piece with your friends and family.