Buffet was born in Paris in 1928. His older brother and he were raised in strict respect of moral and religious values. Bernard Buffet lived through the Nazi occupation, deprivation, and the torments of war. At fifteen years old, his teachers already considered him to be an outstanding student, particularly precocious and talented. He entered the School of Fine Arts very young. In the 1950s, an increasingly large number of collectors treasured his style of painting. The private life of the painter fascinated the public and this handsome, introverted man of a dignified and fascinating nature quickly made the headlines of the popular press of the time.

Throughout his career, Buffet did not deviate from his style. His favorite themes remained women, circus, naked men, landscapes, and still life. In 1952, Bernard Buffet started to work on his first lithographs and engravings. At the request of Doctor Girardin, a dedicated collector, he did one hundred and twenty-five drypoint engraving to illustrate Lautréamont’s Chants de Maldoror, a work that was edited by Les Dix. Bernard Buffet’s lithographs quickly became known throughout the world.

Buffet organized annual theme exhibitions at the Garnier gallery. Retrospectives of his work were also held in major cities around the world, Tokyo at the Odakyu Museum in 1995, Kaohsiung city in Taiwan in 1996, Am Museum of Fine Arts in The Hague in 2006 being a few. He produced an astonishing number of works, more than 8000 altogether.

In 1999, Bernard Buffet made the choice to voluntarily leave the world by taking his own life in his beloved Domaine de la Baume workshop in Tourtour. Diminished by illness, Bernard Buffet could not bear the idea of no longer being able to paint. He dedicated his life to art and the fact of being deprived of his abilities was unbearable for him. For his last exhibition, he chose the theme of death. It took place after his death.