Nabi School - The Wood Of Love

Carved and gilded oak frame For the Nabis painters, the Bois d'Amour was not only a picturesque landscape, but a place of artistic revelation and the starting point of their movement. It was here, in Pont-Aven, that Paul Sérusier painted the Nabis' founding work, known as The Talisman, The Aven in the Bois d'Amour, in 1888. The significance of the Bois d'Amour for the Nabis lies in the anecdote of its creation. While Paul Sérusier was working in the Bois d'Amour, Paul Gauguin is said to have given him this memorable advice: “How do you see these trees? They are yellow. Well, use yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Use vermilion.” The significance of the Bois d'Amour for the Nabis lies in the anecdote of its creation. While Paul Sérusier was working in the Bois d'Amour, Paul Gauguin is said to have given him this memorable advice: “How do you see these trees? They are yellow. Well, use yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Use vermilion.” The Talisman, initially called Landscape in the Bois d'Amour, became the founding manifesto of the Nabi movement. For the Nabis, this small wooden panel was a true object of worship, a “talisman” that embodied their aesthetic principles, summed up by the subjectivity of perception, the empowerment of the work of art: The painting exists for itself, independently of the reality it depicts. It is an entity in its own right, with its own rules of composition and harmony and its own spiritual and decorative dimension. The Nabis sought to reintegrate art into everyday life and give it a spiritual significance. The Bois d'Amour, as painted by Sérusier, with its intense colors and simplified forms, possesses an almost mystical and decorative quality that corresponded to their aspirations. Thus, the Bois d'Amour, seen by the Nabis painters, is much more than a simple setting. It is the symbolic place of their aesthetic revolution, where painting frees itself from mimesis to become a pure expression of color, form and the artist's subjectivity. Although anonymous, our painting with its shimmering autumnal and Pont-Avenienne forest tones is fully in line with this Nabi movement, echoing the iconography of Paul Sérusier's painting.