Paul Serusier

Paul Sérusier was a French painter and a key figure among the Nabis, a group of young artists who broke with realism in the 1890s. Born in Paris in 1864, he painted a small, revolutionary landscape under the guidance of Paul Gauguin, using bold, flat patches of pure color. His friends treated this little painting almost as a sacred object and nicknamed it The Talisman.

It helped inspire the Nabis to value color, pattern, and feeling over exact imitation of nature. Sérusier went on to paint scenes of rural Brittany in rich, decorative color, drawn to its landscape and traditions. He is remembered both as a painter and as a theorist whose ideas helped point the way toward modern art.