7. Édouard Vuillard, Chestnut Trees.
Distemper on cardboard, mounted on canvas, 110 × 70 cm.
Private collection.
8. Ker Xavier Roussel, Women in the Countryside, c. 1893.
Pastel on paper, 42 × 26 cm.
Private collection, Paris.
9. Ker Xavier Roussel, Garden, 1894.
Oil on cardboard mounted on canvas, 120 × 91.4 cm.
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
There was one more Russian collector who showed interest in the Nabis, Victor Golubev, but he took up residence in Paris. The two canvases belonging to him at the 1912 St. Petersburg exhibition, Vuillard’s Autumn Landscape and Denis’s St. George, were actually sent from France. The exhibition betokened a genuine recognition of new French art: on display were the finest works by Manet, Renoir, Monet, Cézanne and Gauguin.
The salon idols, who still had many admirers among the public, were represented by only a few works, while there were twenty-four Renoirs, seventeen Cézannes and twenty-one Gauguins. The Nabis were, of course, represented on a more modest but still creditable scale: six paintings by Bonnard, five each by Roussel and Denis, four by Vuillard and two each by Vallotton and Sérusier. Their works effectively formed the final element in the exhibition. They could no longer be regarded as the last word in French art, but they were the latest thing considered acceptable by the organizers of this diverse artistic panorama which occupied over twenty rooms in Count Sumarokov-Elstone’s house in Liteny Prospekt. This was undoubtedly one of the most significant art exhibitions of the early twentieth century, not only in Russia, but in the whole of Europe. Even today one cannot help marvelling at its scope and at the aptness in the choice of many works. At the same time the catalogue shows its organisers’ desire to avoid excessive radicalism. It was, after all, a purely St. Petersburg affair, a joint venture of the magazine Apollon (Apollo) and the French Institute, which at that time was located in St. Petersburg. The Institute’s director, Louis Réau, was a prominent art historian. The great Moscow collectors did not contribute to the exhibition, although Ivan Morozov was a member of its honorary committee.
10. Louis Comfort Tiffany, Garden, 1895.
Made after the stained glass window from Ker Xavier Roussel.
Private collection.
11. Pierre Bonnard, The Child with a Sandcastle, c. 1894.
Distemper on canvas, 167 × 50 cm.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
By that time in Moscow, where artistic life was far more turbulent than in St. Petersburg, painting of the type represented by the Nabis had been ousted by the more audacious and striking manifestations of the avant-garde, both Russian and foreign. Whereas at the 1908 Golden Fleece exhibition, Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Sérusier and Roussel were well represented, the following year their pictures were no longer on show. However, the organizers of the 1909 exhibition included works by Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Braque. The Izdebsky Salon, a fairly large international exhibition arranged by Vladimir Izdebsky which in 1910 visited Odessa, Kiev, St. Petersburg and Riga, presented not only works by Matisse, Kees van Dongen, Vlaminck, Rouauft and Braque, but also by Larionov, Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Bechtejeff, Altman and many others. In sharp contrast there were only a few Nabis paintings. Neither Russian nor Western European art lovers had turned their backs on the art of Bonnard and his companions, but it had receded into the background. The opinion took root that these artists were of minor importance, and several decades were to pass before this myth was finally dispelled. The reason for the rise of the myth was that the Nabis stood apart from the mainstream of the various antagonistic movements in art, torn by strife on the eve of the First World War. But Time, that great arbiter, lifted the veil of obscurity from the Nabis, once again revealing the merits of their art, and placing Bonnard among the most brilliant colourists that France has ever produced.
12. Paul Cézanne, The Four Seasons – Autumn (detail), 1850–1860.
Oil on canvas, 314 × 104 cm.
Petit Palais – Musée des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris, Paris.
The generation of Bonnard and his companions came to the fore in artistic life at the close of the nineteenth century. Nurtured by the colourful era known as the belle époque, they themselves contributed much to it. The history of nineteenth-century French art may be divided up in different ways. If, however, one is guided by the most fundamental cultural distinctions, a pattern of three periods approximately equal in length can be drawn. The first, which began when the principles of Classicism still reigned supreme, saw the emergence of the Romantic movement. The second was dominated by Realism, which appeared sometimes on its own, sometimes in interaction with Romanticism and even with a form of Classicism lapsing into Academicism. The third period was marked by a greatly increased complexity in the problems tackled by the artists. Influences of earlier times could still be traced in the various artistic styles, but only to highlight the new and unusual artistic manifestations. The development of painting gathered an unprecedented momentum. Its idioms became enriched by numerous discoveries. Impressionism assumed the leading role in spite of the hostility shown towards it in official circles, by the general public, and by most painters.
The last three decades of the nineteenth century were among the greatest and richest in French art. They were staggering in their volcanic creative activity. One brilliant constellation of artists was followed by the rise of another. Younger painters rapidly caught up with their older colleagues and competed with them. Moreover, the appearance of a dazzling new movement in art was not followed by a lull, a pause in development, which could have had a historical justification – to give that movement time to strengthen its influence. On the contrary, no sooner had the roar of one gigantic wave subsided, than another came rolling implacably behind it, and so on, wave after wave.
13. Maurice Denis, Martha and Mary, 1896.
Oil on canvas, 77 × 116 cm.
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
14. Georges Lacombe, Isis, c. 1895.
Bas-relief in mahogany, 111.5 × 62 × 10.7 cm.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
15. Paul Cézanne, The Four Seasons – Spring (detail), 1859–1860.
Oil on canvas, 314 × 104 cm.
Petit Palais – Musée des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris, Paris.
The main “disturber of the peace” in the 1860s was Édouard Manet. His works caused a revolution in painting, blazing the way for a new style – Impressionism. The 1870s were decisive years in the Impressionists’ battle to assert their new, unbiased