Women among the Nabis. From thread to needle

Like a shadow play, silhouettes appear, mysterious and familiar at the same time. Marthe Meurier, Maria (or Marthe) Boursin, France Rousseau, Laure Bonnamour, Marie Michaud... Their maiden name doesn’t lift them out of anonymity, but their husband’s or son’s name gives them an identity, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Ranson Georges Lacombe, Edouard Vuillard...

1. Maurice Denis (1870-1943)
The Muses, 1893
Oil on canvas - 171.5 x 137.5 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Photo: RMN/Hervé Lewandowski

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At the Musée de Pont-Aven, Charlotte Foucher evokes the women who lived in the intimacy of the Nabis masters; companions, lovers, mothers, sisters, they constitute a solid and discreet entourage, as necessary as a frame for a painting. A researcher at the CNRS and the author of a thesis on women artists in France in Symbolist circles [1] the curator of this exhibition does not overturn the table or cry injustice: no, those who worked alongside the Nabis are not unknown artists, victims of some kind of injustice in art history. There were no Nabi women as such, but collaborators, models and supporters of all kinds. Analysing the presence of women allows us to change our perspective on the art of the masters; by going behind the scenes, we gain a better understanding of the context in which they were created.
The works on display are varied, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, as well as photographs, embroidery and tapestries, set and costume designs, puppets and more. The visitor is taken from the impassivity of the Muses to the facetiousness of Abbé Prout (ill. 1 and 2). An exhibition at the Palais du Luxembourg had already underlined the importance of the decorative arts in Nabi production (see article, see also book by Katherine M. Kuenzli).

2. Paul Élie Ranson (1861-1909)
Manuscript of L’Abbé Prout. Guignol pour les vieux enfants
play for puppets, 1902
Ink
Private collection
Photo: François Doury

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The first section, entitled "se lier" ("bonding"), examines the vision of the couple, which varies from one Nabi to another: harmonious for Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, erotic for Aristide Maillol and Georges Lacombe, stormy for Paul Rançon and Felix Vallotton. "What has man done that is so serious that he has to endure this terrifying "associate" that is woman? It seems that there can only be a possibility between the sexes as conquerors and conquered [2]. Opposite their works are family photographs taken by women, in particular by the two Marthe, Boursin and Meurier (Bonnard and Denis), who provoke a reversal of roles: it is they who hold the lens, while the artists become their models and fall from their pedestals; these Nabis, in other words these "prophets", are also husbands and fathers, heckled by nice children and beach lovers.
But women did not confine themselves to the intimacy of the family cocoon. They were also active in the social…