Saturdays At the Ransons

At first the Nabis met at  L’Os à Moelle, a bistro known to many of them from their student days at  the Académie Julian.   Soon, they moved their monthly reunions to the studio of Paul Elie Ranson at 25 Boulevard du Montparnasse, a place they jokingly called ‘Le Temple’. Nicknames were adopted, and esoteric words were used as  tokens of group solidarity. to set their pictures apart from the uncomprehending ‘pelichtim’ (bourgeoisie).  The Saturday afternoon discussions of aesthetics were followed by evening visits to Le Chat Noir, to see the shadow theater.  The influence of silhouette and caricature is obvious in in Ranson's most famous image Tiger In The Jungle.  Eventually the playful Ranson included puppet theater at his studio.

It was Ranson who gave  each new member a "picturesque sobriquet" by which he would be known within the group. Serusier was known as ‘Le Nabi ‘a la barbe’,  and Denis known as ‘Le Nabi aux belle Icones,’ Lacombe as ‘Le Nabi Sculpteur’ and so on, each member having a name that reflected how he was seen within the group. Although Pierre Bonnard was dubbed ‘Le Nabi-Japonard,’ Ranson's nickname applied just as aptly to his own work. 

The original group of 1890 was soon bolstered by new recruits, Ker-Xavier Roussel and Edouard Vuillard, friends from l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and then in 1891–2 by foreign artists, including Jan Verkade (Netherlands), Mogens Ballin Denmark),  Félix Vallotton (Switzerland) and  József Rippl-Rónai (Hungary). Sculptors Georges Lacombe and Aristide Maillol. and a few writers and musicians like Charles Morice  and Pierre Hermant were included. Gauguin, then in Tahiti, was declared an honorary member.

In addition to the monthly dinners Paul  and his wife, Marie-France, who was known as ‘the light of the temple,’ began to host  Saturday afternoon gatherings for the group. Their apartment,  and George Lacombe’s Versailles studio , were the group's two  ergasteriums (a Greek word for a place where work is done.)

Marie-France  was an integral part of the group.  She and Paul worked together to produce tapestries, such as Spring.  Ranson's taste ran to the exotic; he borrowed religious imagery from pagans as well as popes.  

After Paul's death in 1909, Marie-France Ranson continued to teach art at what had become l'Academie Ranson, extending the Nabi legacy to new artists.

Images:

1. Maurice Denis - Madame Ranson With A Cat, 1892, Musee Maurice Denis, St. Germaine-en-Laye.

2. Paul Elie Ranson - Tiger In The Jungle, 1893, Cleveland Museum of Art.

3. Paul Elie Ranson - The Blue Bather, 1891, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

4. Paul Elie Ranson - Woman Beside A Balistrade With A Poodle, 1895, Metropolitan Museum of art, NYC.

5. Paul Elie Ranson - Spring - Woman Beneath Blossoming Trees, 1895, needlepoint on canvas, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

6. Paul Elie Ranson - Digitalis, 1899, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.