LES NABIS

   "En ta paume, mon verbe et ma pensée"

    (In the palm of your hand, my word and my thoughts)

   Les Nabis a group of Post-Impressionist avant garde artists who take a step for fine arts and graphic arts, originated as a rebellious group of young student artists in France in the 1890s. Initially a group of friends interested in contemporary art and literature, most of them studied at the private high school of Radolphe Julian (Académie Julian) in Paris 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 began to break: The Hommage a Cézanne, painted by Maurice Denis 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 Bonnard, Edouard Villard, could stand artistically, on their own. Only Paul Sérisier had problems to overcome though it was his Talisman, painted at the advise of Paul Gauguin, that had revealed to them the way to go.

PIERRE BONNARD, THE DINNING ROOM IN THE COUNTRY

   The term was coined by the poet Henri Cazalis 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 initates, 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 etma pensée" (In the palm of your hand, my word and my thoughts.)

   The artists of Les Nabis worked in a variety in media, using oils and both canvas and cardboard, distemper on canvas and wall decoration and also produced posters, prints, book illustration, textiles and furniture. Their subject matter was representational, but was design oriented along the lines of the Japanese prints they so admired, and art nouvaeu.

   PIERRE BONNARD

   Pierre Bonnard was a french painter and printmaker as well as founding member of Les Nabis. In the twenties, he was a part of Les Nabis, a group of young artists committed to creating work of symbolic and spiritual nature. He left Paris in 1910 for the south of France.

PIERRE BONNARD, TWO DOGS IN A DESERTES STREET

  Bonnard is known for his intense use of color, especially via areas built with small brushmarks and close values. His often complex compositions, typically of sunlit interiors of rooms and gardens populated with friends and family members, are both narrative and autobiographical. His wife Marthe was an ever present subject over the course of several decades. He also painted several self-portraits, landscapes and many still lifes which usually depict flowers and fruits.