Les Nabis (pronounced nah bee) were a group of
Post-ImpressionistPost-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet...
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
artists who set the pace for fine arts and
graphic artsGraphic arts is a term applied historically to the art of printmaking and drawing. In contemporary usage it refers to the applied trade-skills of a pressman, pre-press technician, or typesetter. The term can include the trades of lithography, serigraphy and bindery, among others...
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in the 1890s. Initially a group of friends interested in contemporary art and literature, most of them studied at the private art school of Rodolphe Julian (
Académie JulianThe Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. At the time, the government sanctioned art school of France, École des Beaux-Arts, did not allow women to enroll...
) in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the late 1880s. In 1890, they began to successfully participate in public exhibitions, while most of their artistic output remained in private hands or in the possession of the artists themselves. By 1896, the unity of the group had already begun to break: The
Hommage à Cézanne, painted by
Maurice DenisMaurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and Education:...
in 1900, recollects memories of a time already gone, before even the term
Nabis had been revealed to the public. Meanwhile, most members of the group - Maurice Denis,
Pierre BonnardPierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He led a happy and careless youth as the son of a prominent official of the French Ministry of War. At the insistence of his father, Bonnard studied law, graduating...
,
Edouard VuillardJean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
- could stand, artistically, on their own. Only Paul Sérusier had problems to overcome—though it was his
Talisman, painted at the advice of
Paul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with colouring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way...
, that had revealed to them the way to go.
Origin of the term
Nabi means
prophetIn religion, a prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans...
in Hebrew.
Les Nabis originated as a rebellious group of young student artists who banded together at the Académie Julian .
Paul SérusierPaul Sérusier was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabi movement.- Education :...
galvanized Les Nabis, and provided the name and disseminated the example of
Paul GauguinEugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with colouring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way...
among them.
Pierre BonnardPierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He led a happy and careless youth as the son of a prominent official of the French Ministry of War. At the insistence of his father, Bonnard studied law, graduating...
,
Edouard VuillardJean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
and
Maurice DenisMaurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and Education:...
became the best known of the group; at the time, however, they were somewhat peripheral to the core group.
The term was coined by the poet
Henri CazalisHenri Cazalis was a French physician who was a symbolist poet and man of letters and wrote under the pseudonyms of Jean Caselli and Jean Lahor...
who drew a parallel between the way these painters aimed to revitalize painting and the way the ancient prophets had rejuvenated Israel. Possibly the nickname arose because "most of them wore beards, some were Jews and all were desperately earnest".
Les Nabis regarded themselves as initiates, and used a private vocabulary. They called a studio
ergasterium, and ended their letters with the initials
E.T.P.M.V. et M.P., meaning "En ta paume, mon verbe et ma paume" ("In the palm of your hand, my word and my palm.")
Influence
Meeting at
Académie JulianThe Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. At the time, the government sanctioned art school of France, École des Beaux-Arts, did not allow women to enroll...
, and then at the apartment of
Paul RansonPaul Ranson was a French painter and writer.Paul-Elie Ranson was born in Limoges and studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs there before moving to Paris and transferring to the Académie Julian in 1886. There he met Paul Sérusier in 1888. Subsequently from 1890 he became a member and a creative...
, they preached that a work of art is the end product and the visual expression of an artist's synthesis of nature in personal aesthetic metaphors and
symbolsSymbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the movement had its roots in Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
. They paved the way for the early 20th century development of
abstractAbstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
and non-representational art. The goal of integrating art and daily life, was a goal they had in common with most progressive artists of the time.
Style
Les Nabis artists worked in a variety of media, using oils on both canvas and cardboard,
distemperDistemper can refer to*A viral infection**Canine distemper, a disease of dogs**Feline distemper, a disease of cats**Phocine distemper, a disease of seals*A bacterial infection**Equine distemper, or Strangles, a bacterial infection of the horse...
on canvas and wall decoration, and also produced posters, prints, book illustration, textiles and furniture. Considered to be on the cutting edge of modern art during their early period, their subject matter was representational (though often symbolist in inspiration), but was design oriented along the lines of the Japanese prints they so admired, and
art nouveauArt Nouveau is an international movement and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century . The name 'Art nouveau' is French for 'new art'...
. Unlike those types however, the artists of this circle were highly influenced by the paintings of the impressionists, and thus while sharing the flatness, page layout and negative space of art nouveau and other decorative modes, much of Nabis art has a painterly, non-realistic look, with color palettes often reminding one of Cézanne and Gauguin.
BonnardPierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He led a happy and careless youth as the son of a prominent official of the French Ministry of War. At the insistence of his father, Bonnard studied law, graduating...
's posters and lithographs are more firmly in the art nouveau, or Toulouse-Lautrec manner. After the turn of the century, as modern art moved towards
abstractionAbstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to a ball retains only the information...
,
expressionismExpressionism was a cultural movement originating in Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience rather than physical reality...
,
cubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as "Analytic Cubism", was both radical and influential as...
, etc, the Nabis were viewed as conservatives, and indeed were among the last group of artists to stick to the roots and artistic ambitions of the impressionists, pursuing these ends almost into the middle of the 20th century. In their later years, these painters also largely abandoned their earlier interests in decorative and applied arts.
Members of the Nabis group and associated artists
Among the artists who considered themselves Nabis was
Maurice DenisMaurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and Education:...
, whose journalism put the aims of the group in the eye of a progressive audience, and whose definition of painting — "a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order" — expressed the Nabis approach. His
Théories (1920; 1922) summed up the Nabis' aims long after they had been superseded by the
fauveLes Fauves were a short-lived and loose grouping of early 20th century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...
painters and by
cubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as "Analytic Cubism", was both radical and influential as...
.
Other Nabis were
Pierre BonnardPierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He led a happy and careless youth as the son of a prominent official of the French Ministry of War. At the insistence of his father, Bonnard studied law, graduating...
,
Edouard VuillardJean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
,
Ker-Xavier RousselKer-Xavier Roussel was a French painter associated with Les Nabis.Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; alongside his friend Édouard Vuillard, he also studied at the studio of painter Diogène Maillart...
,
Paul RansonPaul Ranson was a French painter and writer.Paul-Elie Ranson was born in Limoges and studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs there before moving to Paris and transferring to the Académie Julian in 1886. There he met Paul Sérusier in 1888. Subsequently from 1890 he became a member and a creative...
and
Félix VallottonFélix Edouard Vallotton was a Swiss painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut.-Life and work:...
. The sculptor
Aristide MaillolAristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:Maillol was born in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roussillon. He decided at an early age to become a painter, and moved to Paris in 1881 to study art...
was associated for a time with the group. The
post-ImpressionistPost-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet...
styles they embraced skirted some aspects of contemporary
art nouveauArt Nouveau is an international movement and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century . The name 'Art nouveau' is French for 'new art'...
and
SymbolismSymbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Symbolism is sometimes used to refer specifically to totemic symbols that stand on their own, as opposed to linguistic symbols....
. The influence of the English
Arts and Crafts MovementThe Arts and Crafts Movement was a British, Canadian, Australian, and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century...
set them to work in media that involved crafts beyond painting: printmaking, book illustration and poster design, textiles and set design.
- Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He led a happy and careless youth as the son of a prominent official of the French Ministry of War. At the insistence of his father, Bonnard studied law, graduating...
(1867-1947), le Nabi très japonard
- Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and Education:...
(1870-1943), le Nabi der schönen Ikonen
- Maxime Dethomas
Maxime Pierre Dethomas was a painter, draughtsman, pastellist, lithographer, illustrator, and was “among the best known metteurs en scene and decorators” of theatres. As an artist, Dethomas was highly regarded by his contemporaries and exhibited widely, both within France and abroad...
(1869-1929)
- Meyer de Haan (1852-1895), Nabi hollandais
- Rene Georges Hermann-Paul
René Georges Hermann-Paul was a French artist. He was born in Paris and died in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer....
(1864-1940)
- Henri-Gabriel Ibels (1867-1936),
- Georges Lacombe (1868-1916), le Nabi sculpteur
- Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:Maillol was born in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roussillon. He decided at an early age to become a painter, and moved to Paris in 1881 to study art...
(1861-1944)
- Paul Ranson
Paul Ranson was a French painter and writer.Paul-Elie Ranson was born in Limoges and studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs there before moving to Paris and transferring to the Académie Julian in 1886. There he met Paul Sérusier in 1888. Subsequently from 1890 he became a member and a creative...
(1864-1909), le Nabi plus japonard que le Nabi japonard
- József Rippl-Rónai
József Rippl-Rónai was a Hungarian painter.He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to study in Budapest, where he obtained a degree in pharmacology. In 1884 he travelled to Munich to study painting at the Academy. Two years later he obtained a grant which...
(1861-1927)
- Ker-Xavier Roussel
Ker-Xavier Roussel was a French painter associated with Les Nabis.Born François Xavier Roussel in Lorry-lès-Metz, Moselle, at age fifteen he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris; alongside his friend Édouard Vuillard, he also studied at the studio of painter Diogène Maillart...
(1867-1944)
- Paul Sérusier
Paul Sérusier was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabi movement.- Education :...
(1864-1927), le Nabi à la barbe rutilante
- Félix Vallotton
Félix Edouard Vallotton was a Swiss painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis. He was an important figure in the development of the modern woodcut.-Life and work:...
(1865-1925)
- Jan Verkade
Jan Verkade was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. In the early 1890s, frequented the circles of Paul Gauguin and of Les Nabis...
(1868-1946), le Nabi obéliscal
- Edouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
(1868-1940)
External links