A group of young painters, greatly influenced…
1891 CE
In addition, largely because they are in close touch with Symbolist writers, they regard choice of subject as important.
The painters, mostly alumni of the Académie Julian, call themselves Nabis (from Hebrew navi, "prophet," or "seer").
Among them are Maurice Denis (with Paul Sérusier the group's main theoretician), Paul Ranson (who gives the group's style a decorative and linear inflection), Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, and René Piot.
The quasi-mystical attitude of the Nabis is perfectly suited to Denis's highly religious nature.
The Nabis in 1891 hold their first exhibition, attempting in their works to illustrate Denis's Symbolist dictum.
They soon begin to apply this idea to such varied works as posters, stained glass, theater sets, and book illustrations.
The Symbolist movement in French painting is linked with literature and, in particular, with drama; it inspires its own periodical, La Revue Blanche, and Le Théâtre de l'Oeuvre, both founded in Paris in 1891.
Beginning in this year, there are exhibitions held twice yearly at a Paris gallery, Le Barc de Boutteville.
Following studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Aurélien Lugné-Poë, an aspiring twenty-two-year-old actor, joins Bonnard, Denis, and Vuillard in their shared Montmartre studio.
He acts first at André Antoine's Théâtre-Libre and then at Paul Fort's Théâtre d'Art, where he is introduced to Symbolist theater.
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West Europe
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