Sérusier, who is around twenty-five in 1888,…
October 1888 CE
Eighteen-year-old Maurice Denis studies also at the Académie Julian under Jules Lefebvre and at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Reacting against the naturalistic tendencies of Impressionism, Denis falls under the influence of the work of Paul Gauguin, whose style is also much admired by Sérusier.
Both become members of the so-called Pont-Aven school that forms in the summer around Gauguin.
Upon the return of the Pont-Aven school to Paris in the fall of 1888, the members meet regularly to discuss new developments in French art, particularly Symbolism.
The Symbolists are now the avant-garde, and one of quite a new kind, influencing not only the arts but also the thought and spirit of the era.