Nabis

The Nabis were a group of Post-Impressionist artists active in Paris during the 1890s. The Nabis promoted decorative and symbolic art that rejected naturalism in favor of mystical and poetic subjects. Their paintings combined flattened forms, expressive color and esoteric symbolism meant to evoke dreams, imagination or spirituality.
Key members included Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Ranson. They were inspired by Paul Gauguin’s Synthetism emphasizing emotional and symbolic content over representation. The Nabis incorporated influences from Japanese prints, Art Nouveau and folk art. Their paintings featured decorative patterns, silhouettes, and objects or environments meant to convey ideas or moods. Subjects centered on intimate interior scenes, landscapes and figures in portraits or allegories.
The Nabis met with initial controversy but gained acceptance in the 1890s art world. They aimed to revitalize painting with decorative beauty and personal meaning beyond Impressionism. Though the group disbanded around 1900, their vision inspired subsequent Intimism and shaped modern art’s move into Post-Impressionism. At their best, the Nabis produced works of poetic depth, visual harmony and symbolic resonance.
The Nabis demonstrated avant-garde art’s turn toward intimacy, decoration and conceptual meaning. Through symbolist subjects and harmonious designs, the Nabis conveyed a poetic and utopian vision in place of Impressionism’s surface naturalism. Their esoteric and emotive style shaped a new generation of artists in search of art’s spiritual or social function beyond recreation alone.
Though no longer cutting edge by the turn of the century, the Nabis’ dreamy and decorative aesthetic introduced psychology, symbolism and personal meaning to reinvigorate French painting. Their works aimed to create total environments fusing daily life with the realm of imagination – expanding art to encompass human consciousness in a desire for concealed harmonies within the visible world.