Les Nabis

Les Nabis is not a name with which I was familiar. It is an artistic movement that fizzled out in 1900 after only twelve years. Some of the members’ names are familiar: Bonnard, Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Sérusier, Ranson and Valloton. Be very careful writing about them because spell-check prefers Nazis to Nabis. An exhibition devoted to their decorative work at the Musée du Luxembourg is exceptional. There are hardly any pictures although members of les Nabis are artists. There are sets of large panels designed to decorate their patrons’ walls. There is wallpaper they designed and, less interestingly, lampshades. The movement lasted just twelve years (1888 – 1900) but it looks back and takes inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement, especially William Morris, Japanese prints and artists such as Poussin. Their work is often one dimensional, flat patterns in which the subjects merge with the background. The texture is often stippled to evoke tapestry or mosaic. Groups of these often large panels are stunning and are not usually seen together. One sequence has been reunited from the Musée d’Orsay and an American gallery, others have been lent from Japan and private collections.

While the Nabis look back their work inspired future generations. A panel of  girls in a garden with goats evokes Mary Fedden’s pictures. The last series in the exhibition is six monumental panels depicting the legend of St Hubert by Maurice Denis, commissioned in 1895 by Denys Cochin, a keen hunting man. In the first panel the Cochin family are depicted at the Meet. In the second panel the hunt has commenced.

St Hubert was born in Toulouse in 656. He was mad for the hunting and omitted to make his Devotions one Good Friday preferring la chasse. The stag he corners has a crucifix between his antlers and has the power of speech. He reproves Hubert; “ “Hubert, unless thou turnest to the Lord, and leadest an holy life, thou shalt quickly go down into hell”. That’s how stags spoke in those days. The pursuit is depicted in the third panel. The hounds are closing in on the stag.

Thereafter Hubert shows a marked improvement in the church-going department. It reminds me of Rex Whistler’s murals at Tate Britain: The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats. 

If you do have an opportunity to go before the exhibition closes on 30th June, there is a good fish restaurant nearby: La Mediterranée on Place de l’Odéon. We had an outside table under a blue awning opposite the facade of the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe.