Paul Sérusier
In October 1888, Serusier walked into the Bois d'Amour at Pont-Aven with Gauguin beside him and a cigar-box lid in his hand. "How do you see these trees?" Gauguin asked. "They are yellow. So put yellow. This shadow, it is rather blue; paint it with pure ultramarine. Those red leaves? Put vermilion." The resulting sketch, roughly twelve by nine centimetres, became the most consequential small painting in Post-Impressionist history.
Biography
Serusier brought the panel back to the Academie Julian in Paris, where he was a student monitor. He showed it to Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis and Paul Ranson. They called it The Talisman and made it the founding object of the Nabis. Serusier, who had been an unremarkable philosophy student at the Lycee Condorcet before turning to painting, became the group's link to Gauguin and to the theory of Synthetism: colour freed from description, flat planes replacing modelled form.
His role was catalytic rather than artistic. Denis became the better theorist; Bonnard and Vuillard became the better painters. Serusier's own work, particularly the Breton landscapes of the 1890s, is underrated but uneven. Around 1895 he withdrew from the Paris art world to settle at Chateauneuf-du-Faou in Brittany, where he had been painting peasant life and rural ritual for years.
Through the painter Jan Verkade, he visited the Benedictine monastery at Beuron in Germany and fell under the influence of Father Desiderius Lenz's theories of sacred geometry. From then on, he pursued a systematic colour theory based on the separation of warm and cold tones. He published his ideas in ABC de la peinture (1921) and taught at the Academie Ranson in Paris until his death in Morlaix in 1927.
Timeline
- 1864Born in Paris. He attended the Lycee Condorcet, where a strong emphasis on philosophy shaped his intellectual approach to painting.
- 1885Enrolled at the Academie Julian in Paris at 21, a respected private art school where he met many of his future collaborators.
- 1888Painted The Talisman at 24 in Pont-Aven under Paul Gauguin's direct supervision, a radical exercise in pure colour that became the founding image of the Nabis movement.
- 1890Co-founded Les Nabis in Paris at 26 with Denis, Bonnard and Vuillard, naming the group from the Hebrew word for "prophet".
- 1897Visited the Benedictine abbey of Beuron in Germany at 33 for the first of several stays, deeply influenced by the monks' theories of sacred geometry and proportion.
- 1908Began teaching regularly at the Academie Ranson in Paris at 44, passing on ideas about colour theory and symbolic composition to a new generation.
- 1921Published ABC de la Peinture at 57, a theoretical treatise developing his ideas on colour harmony, curves and sacred proportions in composition.
- 1927Died in Morlaix, Brittany at 63. He had spent his final decades living quietly in Chateauneuf-du-Faou, immersed in Breton landscape and spiritual art.
Notable Works
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Where to See Paul Sérusier
4 museums worldwide.
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1 works
Collection Rau for UNICEF
Remagen, Germany
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1 worksKunsthalle Bremen
Mitte, Germany
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1 worksMusée d'Art Moderne de Fontevraud
Fontevraud, France
Related Artists
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Paul Sérusier born?
Paul Sérusier was born in 1864 and died in 1927.What art movement was Paul Sérusier part of?
Paul Sérusier was associated with Nabis, Post-Impressionism and Symbolism.Where can I see Paul Sérusier's paintings?
Paul Sérusier's works can be seen in 32 museums worldwide, including Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper, Musée d'Orsay, National Gallery of Art.What is Paul Sérusier known for?
Paul Sérusier is known for carrying a cigar-box painting from Pont-Aven to Paris that became The Talisman and sparked the Nabis.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Paul Sérusier.
- [1] book guggenheim-gauguindecorativ00gaug Used for: biography.
- [2] book Post-impressionism : cross-currents in European painting Used for: biography.
- [3] book Post-impressionism : cross-currents in European painting Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-06-28. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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