Hang Around the World: Painting #136

Les 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, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Sérusier... 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.

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 Hokusaiand 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 kamemono 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.

Art Nouveau / Modern Style

Art Nouveau (/ˌɑːrt nuːˈvoʊ, ˌɑːr/; French: [aʁ nuvo]) is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style was most popular between 1890 and 1910.[1] It was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers.