Nabis

The Nabis were a brotherhood of young French artists active in Paris from 1888 to 1900, nicknamed the "prophets". They formed after Paul Sérusier brought back from Pont-Aven a small landscape, The Talisman (1888), painted under Paul Gauguin's guidance; it became the group's icon and starting point. Most were Académie Julian students - among them Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Félix Vallotton - united by admiration for Gauguin and Cézanne and by the belief that a painting is not a copy of nature but a synthesis of metaphors and symbols created by the artist. Masters of flattened colour, pattern and intimate interiors, they also worked in woodcut, book illustration, decoration and theatre design. They held their final exhibition in 1900 and went their separate ways, but Denis's theories helped shape Cubism, Fauvism and abstraction.

Defining characteristics

• Flat areas of pure, unblended colour assembled into patterned surfaces
• Flattened pictorial space inspired by Japanese prints — overlapping planes instead of deep perspective
• Bold simplification of form with strong outlines, following Cloisonnism
• Intimate domestic interiors and everyday scenes treated as decorative ensembles
• Symbolic suggestion over naturalism — the picture as a synthesis of metaphors
• Decorative unity across media: panels, screens, prints, ceramics and theatre design

Key figures

• Paul Sérusier (1864-1927) — Brought Gauguin's synthetist lessons to Paris in The Talisman (1888) and inspired the brotherhood
• Maurice Denis (1870-1943) — Painter and theorist whose writings defined the group's ideals and shaped early modernism
• Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) — Founding member; painter-printmaker known for decorative colour and intimate interiors
• Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) — Master of patterned interiors built from flattened planes of colour
• Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) — Swiss printmaker whose stark black-and-white woodcuts defined the group's graphic work

Example works

• The Talisman — Paul Sérusier (1888)
• Homage to Cézanne — Maurice Denis (1900)

Sources

• Nabis - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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