Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven

painting by Sérusier

Also known as: “Bois d’amour”, “The Talisman”

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Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven, also known as The Talisman, is a painting by Paul Sérusier created in 1888. This artwork is considered the first painting of the Nabis, a group of French artists influenced by Paul Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school. The Nabis believed art should reflect an artist's synthesis of nature into personal aesthetic metaphors and symbols.123

The Talisman is a small, near-abstract landscape characterized by simplified, non-naturalistic colors and bold outlines, reflecting the Synthetism style. The painting emphasizes the flatness of the canvas and the decorative potential of color and line, moving away from Impressionism's focus on light and nature. Sérusier's work, along with that of other Nabis, influenced the development of abstract and nonrepresentational art in the early 20th century.123

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Paul Sérusier
Formally called Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven (1888), it was known to the Nabis as The Talisman, and it is considered the first Nabi painting. Although by the summer of 1889 Sérusier’s enthusiasm for Gauguin’s work had begun to subside, he joined Gauguin at Pont-Aven…
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Formally called Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven (1888), it was known to the Nabis as The Talisman, and it is considered the first Nabi painting. Although by the summer of 1889 Sérusier’s enthusiasm for Gauguin’s work had begun to subside, he joined Gauguin at Pont-Aven…
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Nabis
…painted the first Nabi work, Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven (1888; also called The Talisman), a small, near-abstract landscape composed of patches of simplified, nonnaturalistic colour.
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…painted the first Nabi work, Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven (1888; also called The Talisman), a small, near-abstract landscape composed of patches of simplified, nonnaturalistic colour.
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Pont-Aven school
Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven, or The Talisman (1888), painted by Paul Sérusier under the direct guidance of Gauguin, became the talisman of the young disciples. Gauguin had instructed Sérusier not only to paint the landscape from memory but to be certain to…
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Landscape at the Bois d’Amour at Pont-Aven, or The Talisman (1888), painted by Paul Sérusier under the direct guidance of Gauguin, became the talisman of the young disciples. Gauguin had instructed Sérusier not only to paint the landscape from memory but to be certain to…
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Western painting
Symbolism
…direction a little sketch titled Bois d’amour (1888) that appeared more independent of appearances and bolder in its synthesis of pattern than anything that had been seen before; it became known in Paris as The Talisman. The liberation of Synthetism, as the new style was called, indeed worked like a…
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…direction a little sketch titled Bois d’amour (1888) that appeared more independent of appearances and bolder in its synthesis of pattern than anything that had been seen before; it became known in Paris as The Talisman. The liberation of Synthetism, as the new style was called, indeed worked like a…
Read More