Les Nabis: Art and Design

Georges Lacombe - The Ages of Life - 1894 - Egg tempera on canvas - Petit Palais - Geneva, Switzerland (click photo for larger image)Les Nabis was a movement that developed from around 1891 to 1899. It was established by a group  of Post-Impressionists artists and illustrators in Paris. They became very influential in the field of graphic art. Their emphasis on design was shared by the parallel Art Nouveau movement. Both groups also had close ties to the Symbolist painters. They maintained that a work of art reflects an artist’s synthesis of nature into personal aesthetic metaphors and symbols.

French painter Georges Lacombe (1868-1916) was a member of the group. Born into a family with artistic inclinations, Georges’ talents flourished. In 1892, while studying at the Académie Julian, he met artists Émile Bernard and Paul Sérusier. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of Les Nabis.

Spring Art History Classes Offered By Jill Kiefer

Impressionism (click photo for larger image)Scarsdale Adult School – Click HERE for More Info and to Register

IMPRESSIONISM and NEO- and POST-IMPRESSIONISM--GATEWAYS TO MODERN ART: Register for the Series or for Individual Sessions.

• THE SEEDS OF IMPRESSIONISM: FOCUS ON MANET, DEGAS, AND MORISOT - Thursday – March 22, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• IMPRESSIONISM IN FULL BLOOM: FOCUS ON MONET AND PIERRE RENOIR - Thursday – March 29, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• THE WINDS OF IMPRESSIONISM: FOCUS ON PISSARO AND SISLEY, and NEO-IMPRESSIONISTS SEURAT and SIGNAC - Thursday – April 12, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• POST-IMPRESSIONISM--A NEW DIRECTION: FOCUS ON CÉZANNE—THE “FATHER OF MODERN ART” - Thursday – April 19, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• GRAND LEAPS OF THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS: FOCUS ON VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN - Thursday – April 26, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM

The Center for Continuing Education (Larchmont-Mamaroneck). Click HERE for More Info & to Register.

• THE ART OF MEXICO: A RICH AND TEXTURED TRADITION - Thursday, March 8, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• REINCARNATIONS: FINDING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT - Thursday, March 15, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• MUSES: SECRETS AND SCANDALS - Thursday, March 22, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• GENDER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ART - Thursday, March 29, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• THE FANTASTIC NAÏFS—INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS - Thursday, April 12, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS! - Thursday, April 19, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• UNDER THE COVER OF NIGHT—INSIDE AND OUT - Thursday, April 26, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• NAKEDNESS AND THE NUDE IN ART - Thursday, May 3, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• MICHELANGELO: COSMIC GRANDEUR - Thursday, May 10, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM
• THE GIANTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: EARLY JEWELS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC MEDIUM - Thursday, May 24, 2018 – 9:30-11:30 AM

Modern Art (click photo for larger image)WHAT AM I LOOKING AT? A SURVEY OF MODERN ART: Register for the Series or for Individual Sessions

• THE FAUVES: “WILD BEASTS” - Thursday – May 3, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• CUBISM: IT CHANGED THE WAY WE SEE - Thursday – May 10, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• EXPRESSIONISM: DON’T THINK…FEEL! - Thursday – May 24, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM
• DADA: THE ANTI-ART and SURREALISM: THE CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS COLLIDE - Thursday – May 31, 2018 – 1:00-3:00 PM BOTH SESSIONS

Jan Verkade: Dutch Post Impressionist and Symbolist

Jan Verkade - Decorative Landscape - 1891 - Oil on panel - Nationalmuseum - Stockholm (click photo for larger image)Jan Verkade (a/k/a Johannes Sixtus Gerhardus Verkade) (1868-1946) was a pivotal Dutch Post-Impressionist artist and a talented Christian Symbolist painter. His spiritual journey eventually led him to become a Benedictine monk, and he continued painting throughout his religious career.

In the work featured here, it is very easy to see the influence of Paul Gauguin. In his earlier days, he was closely associated with the Les Nabis group of artists.

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes: “The Painter for France”

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes - The Pastoral Life of Saint Geneviève, 1879 - Oil on canvas, triptych - Left panel: 53 x 32 1/4 in. - Center panel: 53 x 35 1/8 in. - Right Panel: 52 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. - Norton Simon Museum - Pasadena, CA (click photo for larger image)French painter Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) attempted to recreate something of the monumental Italian fresco style in his huge decorative canvases, painted in oils. He kept his images flat and pale in color—and simplified the drawing—to give something of the effect of fresco. He decorated many Town Halls and other official buildings in France.

The work featured here revisits, at reduced scale, a large mural he painted between 1874 and 1979 at the Parisian Church of Sainte Geneviève (today known as the Panthéon). 

An officially sanctioned and commercially successful artist of the late nineteenth century, Puvis de Chavannes nevertheless inspired admiration among the radical artists of the Nabi Generation. Les Nabis was a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists who set the pace for fine and graphic arts in France, in the 1890s.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Profound Psychological Insight

French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) died at the age of 36, from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis. Although he was an aristocrat, Henri avoided relationships with his peers, due to his insecurity about his own physical appearance. Henri suffered lifelong from a number of congenital health defects, possibly due to inbreeding (his parents were first cousins). These resulted in stunted growth and a host of other physical problems. 

In the mid-1880s Toulouse-Lautrec began his lifelong association with the bohemian life of Montmartre. The cafés, cabarets, entertainers, and artists of this area of Paris fascinated him and led to his first taste of public recognition. “Toulouse-Lautrec is most important for his success in going beyond a representation of superficial reality to a profound insight into the psychological makeup of his subjects.” 

In a career lasting less than 20 years, he created: 737 canvased paintings; 275 watercolors; 363 prints and posters; 5,084 drawings; some ceramic and stained glass works; and, an unknown number of lost works.

Despite his early death, Toulouse-Lautrec helped to direct the course of avant-garde art.

I’ll be delivering a presentation on the artist on Thursday, October 13, 2016, from 9:30-11:30, at the Larchmont Temple. Click on this LINK for further details.