Eric Bourdon - Blog
The Basque Beret

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The Basque Beret

Original acrylic painting on linen canvas
Artwork size : 31.50 x 15.75” / 80 x 40 cm

© Gallery of painter Eric Bourdon
Lille, France, 2026

     In an unlikely corner of the universe, between a clock that melts with a sigh and a philosophical camemvert (vegan camembert), sits the painting entitled The Basque Beret. At first glance, it’s a beret. At second glance, it’s still a beret. But at third glance, the one you get after blinking very hard or eating a slightly suspicious madeleine, the beret starts to look at you.

     Yes, because this beret is not just a simple head covering. It is an individual. A being. A padded entity with a rich inner life and a slight penchant for flamenco, which is already strange for an object supposed to be Basque.

     It floats above a landscape that wavers between an ocean of liquid gold and a checkered tablecloth. In deep, invisible layers of paint, sheep play chess with sardines in three-piece suits. The beret, meanwhile, is thinking. It’s thinking about infinity, about rain, and especially about that time it was mistaken for a crêpe at a tragically gastronomic picnic.

     At times, it begins to spin slowly, as if trying to tune into a cosmic radio station broadcasting only bilingual cricket songs. And suddenly, without warning, it sneezes. A pictorial sneeze, of course, projecting splashes of color that transform into little mustachioed fandango dancers.

     The perplexed viewer wonders : is this a work about identity ? About the absurd ? About the difficulty of being a beret in a world that prefers bowler hats ? No one knows. Not even the beret knows anymore. It has forgotten, distracted as it was by a passionate discussion with strategic sheep and ambitious sardines.



     And perhaps that’s the genius of this Basque beret : reminding us that sometimes, all it takes is being a little removed from reality, or even levitating above it, to begin to understand something…

   Le béret basque