Birth of Les Nabis

The Talisman is a painting by French artist Paul Sérusier made in 1888, under the guidance of Paul Gauguin at the artist’s colony of Pont-Aven in Brittany. This painting, the starting point and icon of the group of young painters called The Nabis, was a landmark in early Post-Impressionism, Synthetism, and Cloisonnism. It is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Something New on a Cigar Box

Returning from a stay at Pont-Aven where he painted under the tutelage of Paul Gauguin, Sérusier returned to Académie Julian to show his friends a small landscape he had painted on the lid of a cigar box.

According to Maurice Denis, Gauguin had told Séruzier : “How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion”.

Google Arts and Culture

A close observation of the painting allows one to recognise certain elements of the landscape represented : the wood, at the top on the left, the transversal path, the row of beech trees on the river bank, and the mill, at the back, on the right. Each of these elements is a stain of colour.

Google Arts and Culture

Epiphany: Art of the Future

This picture was like no other they had ever seen; the woodland and pond-side scene had been composed with pure, brilliant colors applied in a patch-like arrangement on the little panel. It was an epiphany–they immediately recognized that this was the art of the future, and they called this magical painting Le Talisman (Guicheteau, no. 2; fig. 1). They formed their own society of the initiated, and called themselves “Nabis,” from the Hebrew word for prophet.

Christie’s

Details

• Title: The Talisman
• Date Created: 1888
• Provenance: Acquired with the participation of M.Philipe Meyer, through the intermediary of the Fondation Lutèce, 1985
• Physical Dimensions: w210 x h270 cm
• Painter: Paul Sérusier
• Original Title: Le Talisman
• Credit Line: © Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN / Patrice Schmidt
• Type: Oil on wood
• Rights: © Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN / Patrice Schmidt
• External Link: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire_id/the-talisman-7162.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=fd4aacdb96

More At Sunnyside

Les Nabis At Sunnyside

Read More

The Nabis at ArtStory

Les Nabis on Wikiwand

Les Nabis at Google Arts and Culture

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Paul Sérusier at Wikiwand

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside