thumb|200px|right|The first Nabis painting, by [[Paul Sérusier, Le Bois d'Amour à Pont-Aven or Le Talisman, 1888, oil on wood, 27 x 21.5 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris]]

The Nabis (, ) were a group of young French artists active in Paris from 1888 until 1900, who played a large part in the transition from Impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and the other early movements of modernism. The members included Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, Paul Sérusier and Auguste Cazalis. Most were students at the Académie Julian in Paris in the late 1880s. The artists shared a common admiration for Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne and a determination to renew the art of painting, but varied greatly in their individual styles. They believed that a work of art was not a depiction of nature, but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist. In 1900, the artists held their final exhibition and went their separate ways.

Etymology

The Nabis took their name from a Hebrew term which comes from the word nebiim or "prophets". The term was coined in 1888 by the linguist Auguste Cazalis, who drew a parallel between the way these painters aimed to revitalize painting (as 'prophets of modern art') and the way the ancient prophets had rejuvenated Israel.

Beginning

thumb|right|200px|Motif Romanesque by [[Maurice Denis (1890), one of the earliest Nabi paintings]]

The Nabis were a group of young artists of the Académie Julian in Paris, who wanted to transform the foundations of art. One of the artists, Paul Sérusier, had traveled to Pont-Aven in October 1888, where under the guidance of Paul Gauguin he made a small painting of 'The Bois d'Amour'(The forest of love) on wood, composed of patches of vivid color. The students called this first Nabis painting The Talisman, and it eventually became an icon of 20th-century art. Even the name of the group was secret until 1897. They called a studio an 'ergasterium'

Japanese influence

The graphic art of Japan, known as Japonism, particularly woodblock prints, was an important influence on the Nabis. The style was popularized in France by the art dealer Siegfried Bing, who traveled to Japan to collect prints by Hokusai and other Japanese artists, and published a monthly art journal, Le Japon Artistique, between May 1888 and April 1891, which offered color illustrations. In 1900 he organized an exhibit of seven hundred prints at the École des Beaux-Arts.

Pierre Bonnard was particularly influenced by the Japanese style; his nickname among the Nabis was "Le plus japonard". For one series of four paintings created in 1890–91, The Women in the Garden, now in the Musée d'Orsay, Bonnard adapted a Japanese format called kakemono with a narrow vertical canvas. The models are his sister Andrée and his cousin Berthe Schaedin. The four figures are presented in curving, serpentine postures, like those in Japanese prints. The faces of the women look away from the artist; the bold patterns of their costumes and the foliage behind them dominate the paintings. He originally conceived the work as a Japanese screen, but he finally decided to separate it into four paintings, and to emphasize the decorative aspect, he added a painted border around the canvases.

Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier were the Nabis who most often painted religious subjects. The work of Denis was influenced by the paintings of Fra Angelico. He often painted scenes and themes taken from the Bible, but with the figures in modern costume, in simplified landscapes and surrounded by light, a symbol of faith. In 1895, he received a commission for a series of seven large paintings called The Legend of Saint Hubert for the Paris home of Baron Cochin. They illustrated the story of Saint Hubert hunting in the forest of Aquitaine, seeing a vision of Christ, and being converted to Christianity.

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File:Seamstress by Edouard Vuillard.jpg|Édouard Vuillard, The Seamstress, (1893), Indianapolis Museum of Art

File:Edouard Vuillard - Woman in a Striped Dress - Google Art Project.jpg|Édouard Vuillard, Woman in a Striped Dress (1895), National Gallery of Art

File:Vuilllard Interior 1896.jpg|Édouard Vuillard, People in Interior- Music (1896), Petit Palais Museum, Paris

File:Misia at the Piano MET DT3150.jpg|Misia at the Piano (c. 1898), Édouard Vuillard, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Women in the garden

One of the most common subjects of the Nabis was women in an idyllic garden setting, usually picking flowers or fruit. It appeared in four panels representing the seasons of a young woman's life by Maurice Denis (1890–91), painted for the bedroom of a young girl, and in the panels of women in the public parks of Paris by Édouard Vuillard (1894) painted for the residence of his patron Alexandre Nathanson; two paintings of women and children picking apples in an orchard by Pierre Bonnard (1894–96); and in a tapestry by Paul Ranson, Spring, depicting three women picking fruit. All the images are highly stylized, often using the same serpentine forms to represent the women, the trees and the foliage. The young women in the series by Denis are shown traveling along a road, dressed in vestal white in the first painting, then in different colors as they reach maturity in the final painting.

Members and associates

  • Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), le nabi très japonard
  • Maurice Denis (1870–1943), le nabi aux belles icônes
  • Maxime Dethomas (1869–1929)
  • Meyer de Haan (1852–1895), le nabi hollandais
  • Rene Georges Hermann-Paul (1864–1940)
  • Henri-Gabriel Ibels (1867–1936), le nabi journaliste
  • Georges Lacombe (1868–1916), le nabi sculpteur
  • Lugné-Poe (1869–1940)
  • Aristide Maillol (1861–1944)
  • Paul Ranson (1864–1909), le nabi plus japonard que le nabi japonard
  • József Rippl-Rónai (1861–1927), le nabi hongrois
  • Ker-Xavier Roussel (1867–1944)
  • Paul Sérusier (1864–1927), le nabi à la barbe rutilante
  • Marguérite Sérusier, wife of Paul Sérusier; a notable decorative painter
  • Félix Vallotton (1865–1925), le nabi étranger
  • Jan Verkade (1868–1946), le nabi obéliscal
  • Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940), le nabi zouave

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File:115 Maurice Denis Portrait de l'artiste à l'âge de 18 ans.jpg|Maurice Denis, aged eighteen, in 1889

File:Édouard Vuillard 001.jpg|Édouard Vuillard, Self-portrait, 1889

File:Self-portrait-1889.jpg|Pierre Bonnard, Self-portrait, c. 1889

File:Ranson serusier.jpg|Paul Ranson, Paul Sérusier, and Marie-France Ranson in Paul Ranson's studio, c. 1900

File:Ker-Xavier Roussel, Édouard Vuillard, Romain Coolus, Felix Vallotton 1899.jpg|Ker-Xavier Roussel, Édouard Vuillard, Romain Coolus, Félix Vallotton, 1899

File:Porträt Paul Ranson.jpg|Portrait of Paul Ranson in Nabi costume, by Paul Sérusier

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Other members of the group included the playwright Pierre Veber, the musician Pierre Hermant, and the linguist Auguste Cazalis, called (by Ranson) le nabi Ben Kallyre.

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File:Félix Vallotton, 1893 - La Valse.jpg|The Waltz, Félix Vallotton, Museum of Modern Art Le Havre (1893)

File:Vallotton Frau mit Dienstmagd beim Baden.jpg|Félix Vallotton, The Mistress and the Servant, 1896

File:Paesaggio nabi paul ranson.jpg|Paul Ranson, Nabis Landscape, 1890

File:Georges Lacombe-1868-1946-Marine bleue, Effet de vague,circa 1893,peinture à l'oeuf sur toile,43x64,2 cm,Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes.jpg|Georges Lacombe, Marine bleue, Effet de vagues, 1893

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See also

  • Pont-Aven School
  • Henry Lerolle, patron
  • Odilon Redon

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Cogeval, Guy (2015). Bonnard. Paris: Hazan, Malakoff. (in French) *

Further reading

  • The Prophets of Montmartre, an article on the Nabis by Alamantra
  • Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Bonnard and others in the Nabis collective