Paul Serusier

Paul Serusier

Paul Sérusier (1864—1927) was a French painter.

Paul Sérusier was born in the year 1864 into a well-to-do middle-class family, his father was a successful businessman in the perfume industry who ensured that his son received a classical education. In 1875 Sérusier entered the Condorcet Lycée where he studied classical philosophy, Greek and Latin, and the sciences. He graduated from the lycée in 1883 with two baccaulaureats – in philosophy and in the sciences.

In 1885, after a short period of work in the company of his father's friend, Sérusier entered the Académie Julian to study art. Having a lovely disposition, he soon became popular both with students and professors. His lifelong friendship with Maurice Denis started at Académie Julian.

In 1888, Sérusier arrived at Pont-Aven in Brittany, a town popular among French and foreign artists. There, Sérusier's attention turned to a group of artists who crowded around émile Bernand and Paul Gauguin. Sérusier made their acquaintance and even received a lesson from Gauguin. Gauguin encouraged the young painter to release himself from the constraints of imitative painting, to use pure colors, not to hesitate to exaggerate his impressions, and to give to painting his individual decorative logic and symbolic system.

Sérusier returned to Paris with a small painting drawn under Gauguin's guidance, and enthusiastically showed it to his friends, sharing the new ideas that he learned from Gauguin. They called the painting, The Talisman (Le Talisman). Sérusier began active propaganda which, according to Maurice Denis, caused passionate debates among the students.

Together with the friends, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri Ibels and Paul Ranson, who shared the new ideas, Sérusier formed a group, which they called les Nabis (Nabis is the Hebrew word for prophets). They met regularly to discuss theoretical problems of art, symbolism, occult sciences and esotericism. Later, Armand Seguin, Edouard Vuillard and Kerr-Xavier Roussel joined the group. However, after Gauguin's departure to Tahiti in 1891, the group fell apart and its members developed separately in different directions.

In the summer of 1892 Sérusier returned to Brittany and the small village of Huelgoat where he worked for two years. His painting subjects were Breton peasants with their figures monumental and solid. His palette changed, and he no longer used pure colors, but toned them down with gray.

Sérusier spent his winters in Paris working with his friend Lugné-Poe, founder of Théatre de l'Oeuvre. Many of the Nabis artists, Sérusier among them, participated in the scene decoration and costume design of the theater's Symbolist plays. By working on theater sets the artist tried out, on a large scale, their principles of simplification and the synthesis of the various means of expression.

In 1895, Sérusier accepted an invitation of his friend Jan Verkade to visit the Benedictine monastery of Beuron in Germany. The monk-artists of the monastery practiced a set of aesthetic principles according to which the laws of beauty were divine, mysteriously hidden in nature, and were revealed only to the artists who perceived the proportions and the harmony of sizes — God did everything in the Holy Spirit according to measurement, a number and weight.

The monks' doctrine appealed to Sérusier and upon his return to Paris he tried to convince his Nabi friends of their novelty and importance. The ideas met with no enthusiasm in Paris and Sérusier distanced himself from his former friends.

After several voyages to Beuron he settled in Brittany, and cultivated a painting style based primarily on calculations and measurements, and applied Beuton ideas to his Breton subjects.

He then studied Egyptian art, the Italian primitivists, and the tapestries of the Middle Ages to create decorative works of a mysterious and calculated timelessness.

From 1908, he taught regularly at the Ranson Academy.

In 1921 Sérusier published ABC of Painting, a short treatise in which he developed a theory of the curves and simple shapes, a theory of color and a method of research of the deafened colors. The book represented the summary of Sérusier's aesthetic research.

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Boys On A River Bank 1906

Boys On A River Bank 1906

1356.07 Kr1125.54 Kr17% off
Celtic Tale 1894

Celtic Tale 1894

1514.67 Kr1257.18 Kr17% off
Breton Dance 1890

Breton Dance 1890

800.95 Kr664.79 Kr17% off
Girl From Savoy 1890

Girl From Savoy 1890

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Grammar 1892

Grammar 1892

1284.70 Kr1066.30 Kr17% off
Avenue De Neuilly

Avenue De Neuilly

1252.97 Kr1039.97 Kr17% off
A Widow 1919

A Widow 1919

1316.42 Kr1092.63 Kr17% off
A Rain 1893

A Rain 1893

1324.35 Kr1099.21 Kr17% off
Madame Serusier With A Parasol 1912

Madame Serusier With A Parasol 1912

1371.93 Kr1138.70 Kr17% off
A Breton Sunday 1890

A Breton Sunday 1890

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Bathers With White Veils 1908

Bathers With White Veils 1908

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Apple Harvest

Apple Harvest

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Fair Chateauneuf Du Faou 1903

Fair Chateauneuf Du Faou 1903

1284.70 Kr1066.30 Kr17% off
Fisherman On The Laita 1890

Fisherman On The Laita 1890

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Plate Of Apples

Plate Of Apples

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Evening 1

Evening 1

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Evening

Evening

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Eve Picking The Apple 1906

Eve Picking The Apple 1906

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Bretons On A Path

Bretons On A Path

1023.00 Kr849.09 Kr17% off
Susanna And The Elders

Susanna And The Elders

1094.37 Kr908.33 Kr17% off
Square With Street Lamp 1891

Square With Street Lamp 1891

1387.79 Kr1151.86 Kr17% off
Interior 1888

Interior 1888

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The Fairy And The Knight 1912

The Fairy And The Knight 1912

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Still Life 1927

Still Life 1927

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Portrait Of Marie Lagadu 1889

Portrait Of Marie Lagadu 1889

1213.32 Kr1007.06 Kr17% off
The Farm At Pouldu 1890

The Farm At Pouldu 1890

1403.65 Kr1165.03 Kr17% off
The Youth Of Queen Anne

The Youth Of Queen Anne

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Spring 1890

Spring 1890

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Scene

Scene

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The Wash In A Large Meadow 1894

The Wash In A Large Meadow 1894

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The Flock In The Black Forest 1903

The Flock In The Black Forest 1903

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The Incantation The Holy Wood 1891

The Incantation The Holy Wood 1891

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The Talisman 1888

The Talisman 1888

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The Flowered Barrier 1889

The Flowered Barrier 1889

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The Wrestling Bretons 1893

The Wrestling Bretons 1893

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The Daughters Of Pelichtim 1908

The Daughters Of Pelichtim 1908

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The Times 1919

The Times 1919

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Peasant With Three Crows 1893

Peasant With Three Crows 1893

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The Sewer 1892

The Sewer 1892

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Undergrowth At Huelgoat 1905

Undergrowth At Huelgoat 1905

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The Wait At The Well 1897

The Wait At The Well 1897

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The Young Mothers 1891

The Young Mothers 1891

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The Candy Merchant

The Candy Merchant

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Louise The Breton Servant 1890

Louise The Breton Servant 1890

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The Seat At Poldu Sunset

The Seat At Poldu Sunset

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Mognonne Allons Voir Si La Rose 1910

Mognonne Allons Voir Si La Rose 1910

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Still Life With Churn 1925

Still Life With Churn 1925

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Solitude Huelgoat Landscape

Solitude Huelgoat Landscape

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