Paul Sérusier (1863-1927)

Paul Sérusier was born into an upper middle class family in Paris in 1863. He was the student in charge of the studio at the Académie Julian where he had a profound influence over his fellow students Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Elie Ranson, Edouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, and Félix Vallotton. This group of artists later formed the Nabi group whose theorist Sérusier became. In 1888 he accompanied Paul Gauguin to Brittany where he painted his first "synthetist" picture (The Talisman, 1888, Musée d'Orsay) under Gauguin's guidance. He worked with Gauguin at Le Pouldu in 1889/90 and introduced the Nabis to the theories of the Gauguin school. His own style combined a simplified line, which heightened the decorative effect, with ornate arabesques and pure, flat colors. By the mid-1890s Sérusier had begun to lose interest in the Paris and Nabi art world he had so enthusiastically embraced from 1888 to 1893. He then lived an isolated existence in western Brittany where he studied the landscape, history, and mysticism of the Bretons. He was interested in mystically involved Gothic tapestries, questions of theosophy, and Celtic poetry as well. Sérusier analyzed the art of many periods, drawing technical and aesthetic theories from each style he encountered and then synthesizing them in his own work. In 1921 he published his ABC de la Peinture, a book on art theory.

Gail Davitt, DMA research essay, 1986-1987, Education files.

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