Modest subjects
It was precisely by representing the intimate, everyday world and imbuing it with a certain mood that the Nabis explored universal ideas and emotions in their prints and paintings. They shared this way of working with Symbolist authors and dramatists.
In 1894, for instance, the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck described the ideal subjects of modern art as
‘a house lost in the country, an open door at the end of a corridor, a face or hands at rest’.
This was precisely the kind of subject matter Edouard Vuillard depicted in his quiet interiors, intensified through his use of colour, pattern, and touch. As a result, the critic André Mellerio wrote, these works spoke ‘to the soul and not to the eye’.
Edouard Vuillard, The Two Sisters-in-Law (Les deux belles-soeurs), 1899
Félix Vallotton, The Violin (Le violon), 1896
Landscapes of the soul
Printmakers also pulled out all the stops when it came to imbuing their landscapes with mood, through twilight, reflections, silhouettes, mist and sunsets.
In this way, a simple French canal like the ones we find in the lithograph landscapes of Charles-Marie Dulac, is transformed into a poetic landscape that can serve as the starting point for dreams and musings.
Charles Marie Dulac, Plate 1 (Planche 1) from the series Suite de paysages, 1893
Further reading
- George L. Mauner, ‘The Nature of Nabi Symbolism’, The Art Journal 23 (1964), no. 2, pp. 96–103
- Ursula Perucchi-Petri, Intime Welten. Das Interieur bei den Nabis. Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton, Bern 1999
- Merel van Tilburg, ‘Des horizons infinis dans le cercle restreint d'intérieur’. Stimmung in Édouard Vuillards Decorative Paintings’, in Kerstin Thomas (ed.), Stimmung: ästhetische Kategorie und künstlerische Praxis, Berlin/Munich 2010, pp. 179–195