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Hermitage Amsterdam opens Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis. A Russian Taste for French Art

The Hermitage Amsterdam presents Gauguin, Bonnard, Denis. A Russian Taste for French Art an exhibition on view 14 September 2013 to 28 February 2014.

Édouard Vuillard, Children, 1909, tempera on paper, glued onto canvas, 84.5 x 77.7 cm © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Édouard Vuillard, Children, 1909, tempera on paper, glued onto canvas, 84.5 x 77.7 cm © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

In the years following the breakthrough of Impressionism, they went in search of new artistic paths. The elusive Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a shining example for the introverted Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) and the theoretician Maurice Denis (1870–1943). Bonnard and Denis were briefly united with a few other artists (such as Valloton and Vuillars) under the name of Les Nabis, after the Hebrew word for ‘prophet’. These young artists explored fascinating new artistic paths. Unlike the Impressionists, who aimed primarily to capture the fleeting qualities of natural light, the Nabis emphasised colour, feeling, symbolism and imagination. Their work was quickly embraced in Paris, and in Moscow.

The wealthy Russian collector Ivan Morozov was soon charmed by their youthful talent, buying their work and offering them commissions. For instance, Morozov asked Denis to decorate the concert hall in his mansion in 1908. The exhibition will include a unique reconstruction of this exquisite interior, with seven paintings and six decorative panels: The Story of Cupid and Psyche. Bonnard painted the monumental triptych Méditerrannée for the same collector. This work too will be on display in an illusionistic setting, with flat columns in front of the work enhancing the illusion of a Mediterranean view.

The work of the Nabis will be exhibited side by side with French paintings and drawings by their predecessors, contemporaries and immediate successors. With a small selection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Auguste Maillol and Paul Auguste Bartholomé, the exhibition will reveal the many facets of Paris’s flourishing artistic climate in the 1890s.