The Nabis and Intimate Modernism

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     Providing a fresh perspective on an important but underappreciated group of late nineteenth-century French painters, this is the rst book to provide an in-depth account of the Nabis’ practice of the decorative, and its signicance for twentieth-century modernism. Over the course of the ten years that dene the Nabi movement (1890– 1900), its principal artists included Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, and Paul Ranson. The author reconstructs the Nabis’ relationship to Impressionism, mass culture, literary Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Wagnerianism, and a revolutionary artistic tradition in order to show how their painterly practice emerges out of the pressing questions dening modernism around 1900. She shows that the Nabis were engaged, nonetheless, with issues that are always at stake in accounts of nineteenthcentury modernist painting, issues such as the relationship of high and low art, of individual sensibility and collective identity, of the public and private spheres. The Nabis and Intimate Modernism Modernism is a rigorous study of the intellectual and artistic endeavors that inform the Nabis’ decorative domestic paintings in the 1890s, and argues for their centrality to painterly modernism. The book ends up not only re-positioning re-posi tioning the Nabis to occupy a crucial place in modernism’s development from 1860 to 1914, but also challenges that narrative to place more emphasis on notions of decoration, totality and interiority. Katherine M. Kuenzli is Associate Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University, USA.

























The Nabis and Intimate Modernism Painting and the Decorative at the Fin-de-Siècle

Katherine M. Kuenzli Wesleyan Wesleyan University, University, Middletown, Connecticut













First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing Published Pu blished 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2010 Katherine M. Kuenzli Katherine M. Kuenzli has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identied as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Kuenzli, Katherine Marie. The Nabis and intimate modernism : painting and the decorative at the n-de-siècle. 1. Nabis (Group of artists) 2. Nabis (Group of artists)-Inuence. 3. Painting, French--19th century. century. 4. Modernism (Art) I. Title 759.4’09034-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kuenzli, Katherine Marie. The Nabis and intimate modernism : painting and the decorative at the n-de-siècle / Katherine M. Kuenzli. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6777-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Nabis (Group of artists) 2. Painting, French--19th century. century. 3. Decoration and ornament--Inuence. I. Title. II. Title: Painting and the decorative at the n-de-siècle. ND547.5.N3K84 2009 709.44’09034--dc22

2009045494













Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Intimacy and the Dream of Public Art Transgressing Spatial and Gender Distinctions The Home as a Total Work of Art The Nabis and Modernism Method 1 Decorating the Street, Decorating the Home: Bonnard’s Bonnard’s Women in the Garden and the Poster Women in the Garden: Garden: Between Posters and Painterly Symbolism Bonnard’ Bonnar d’ss Intimate Paris Posters and the Dream of Unity A Hybrid Art Form 2 Wagner as Intimist: Intimist : Vuillard’s Desmarais Desmara is Decoration Decora tion and the Symbolist Theater

vii xvii 1 10 13 15 19 23

33 36 47 56 59

69

The Nabis and the Symbolist Theater Interior/Interiority Wagnerian Painterly Aesthetics

71 82 88

3 Modernism and Catholicism in Maurice Denis’s Denis’s Frauenliebe und Leben

105

Schumann and W

109















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4 Two Versions of the Gesamtkunstwerk: Gesamtkunstwerk: The Nabis and the Art Nouveau Interior

149

Theorizing the Art Nouveau Interior The Gesamtkunstwerk and the Nabi Interior

152 165

5 The Art of Reverie: Vuillard’s Vuillard’s Vaquez Decoration and the Nabis’ Critical Legacy

185

Unfamiliar Domesticity The Art of Reverie The Vaquez Panels’ Critical Critica l Reception Recepti on

187 193 197

Conclusion An Armchair Aesthetic: From the Nabis to Matisse and Beyond

215

Bibliography Index

231 265













List of Illustrations

All works by Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, and Edouard Vuillard © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, York/ADAGP, Paris. Other copyright credits are listed in individual entries below. below. The author has made every eort to recover and credit copyright holders. Anyone objecting to the reproduction of any copyrighted images without permission should contact the author. author.

C P

1 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: The Nursemaids , The Conversation , The Red Sunshade (1894), distemper on canvas, 213.5 × 73 cm, 213 × 154 cm, 214 × 81 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo: Jean Schormans. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 2 Pierre Bonnard, Women in the Garden: Woman in a Dress with White Dots (1891), painted paper mounted on canvas, 160 × 48 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Photo credit:

paper mounted on canvas, 160 × 48 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Lewandowski. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 5 Pierre Bonnard, Women in the Garden: Woman Seated with Cat (1891), Cat (1891), painted paper mounted on canvas, 160 × 48 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 6 Edouard Vuillard, Vuillard, Desmarais Panels: The Dressmaking Studio I (1892), oil on canvas, 48.5 × 117 cm. Private collection.













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Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gi of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 2000. Bequest of Wa Walter lter H. Annenberg, 2002. (2000.93.2) Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 10 Edouard Vuillard, Vaquez Decoration: Library and Library and Desk (1896), distemper on canvas, 212.5 × 77.25 cm, 212.5 × 77.25 cm. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. Inv. 2439. Photo: Bulloz. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 11 Edouard Vuillard, Vaquez Decoration: The Salon (The Reader) (1896), distemper on canvas, 212.5 × 154.5 cm. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. Inv. 2439. Photo: Bulloz. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 12 Edouard Vuillard, Vaquez Decoration: Music (The Piano) (1896), distemper on canvas, 210 × 153 cm. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. © ARS, NY. Photo credit: Banque d’Images, ADAGP/Art Resource, NY Bk--W I Introduction

0.1 Georges Seurat, A Seurat, A Sunday on the Grande Jae (1884–86), oil on canvas, 205.5 × 308.1 cm. Helen Birch Bartle Memorial Collection, 1926.224, The Art

Vuillard, Public Gardens: 0.4 Edouard Vuillard, The Two Schoolboys (1894), distemper on canvas, 214 × 98 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 0.5 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: Under the Trees (1894), distemper on canvas, canvas, 214.2 × 96.3 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gi of the Hanna Fund, 1953.212 0.6 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: Lile Girls Playing (1894), distemper on canvas, 212 × 84 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 0.7 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: Asking Questions (1894), distemper on canvas, 212 × 96 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo credit: Vuillard Vuillard Archive, Paris 0.8 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: The Promenade (1894), distemper on canvas, 214.3 × 97.2 cm (frame: 229.2 × 110.5 cm). The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Robert Lee Blaer Memorial Collection, Gi of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Dale Owen 0.9 Edouard Vuillard, Public Gardens: First Steps (1894), distemper on canvas, 212 × 67 cm. Private collection, USA. Photo credit: Vuillard Vuillard Archive, Paris 0.10

Pierre Puvis de Chavanne













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0.13 Edgar Degas, The Tub (1886), pastel on heavy wove paper, 60 × 83 cm. Inv. RF4046. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Lewandowski. Fonds Orsay. Louvre, Paris. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 0.14 Pierre Pie rre Bonnard, Intimacy (1891), oil on canvas, 38 × 36 cm. Inv. R1992406. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 0.15 Edouard Vuillard, Vuillard, Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist (1893), oil on canvas, 46.3 × 56.5 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 1 Decorating the Street, Decorating the Home: Pierre Bonnard’s Bonnard’s Women in the Garden and the Poster

1.1 Pierre Bonnard, France-Champagne (1891), color lithograph, 78 × 50 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 1.2 Maurice Denis, poster for La Dépêche de T oulouse (1892), color lithograph, 140 × 90 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 1.3 Edouard Vuillard, Bécane (1894), color lithograph, 80.8 × 60.4 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

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(1890–91), oil sketch, 154 × 47 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich 1.7 Pierre Bonnard, Woman with Dog (1891), oil on canvas, 40.6 × 32.4 cm. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachuses. Massachuses. Photograph copyright © 2009 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute 1.8 Pierre Bonnard, Twilight (Croquet Game) (1892), Game) (1892), oil on canvas, 130 × 162.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. RF 1985–8. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 1.9 Jules Chéret, Bal du Moulin Rouge (1889), lithograph in vermilion, yellow, blue-violet, blue-viole t, gray-green, gray-gre en, and black, black , sheet 124.14 × 87.95 cm; plate 120.02 × 87 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kurt J. Wagner MD and C. Kathleen Wagner Collection. Photograph © Museum Associates/LACMA 1.10 Jules Chéret, Vin Mariani (1894), lithograph in vermilion, chrome yellow, ultramarine and gray-violet, sheet 118.11 × 81.91 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kurt J. Wagner MD and C. Kathleen Wagner Collection. Photograph © Museum Associates/ LACMA 1.11 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At oulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance (1890), oil













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1.14 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Toulouse-Lautrec, Ambassadeurs: Aristide Aristide Bruant (1892), color lithograph, 138 × 94 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 1.15 Pierre Bonnard, La Revue blanche (1894), color lithograph, 80 × 62 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 1.16 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Toulouse-Lautrec, La Revue blanche (1895), color lithograph, sheet 129.6 × 93.2 cm. Publisher: G. Charpentier and E. Pasquelle for La Revue blanche , Paris. Printer: Printer: Edward Ancourt, Paris. Edition: 1000–3000. 1000–3000. Purchase, 1967. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY 1.17 Pierre Bonnard, L’Estampe et l’ache (1897), color lithograph, 83.8 × 61.7 cm. Yale University Art Gallery. Purchased with a gi from J. Paul Oppenheim, BA 1929, by exchange. Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery 1.18 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Toulouse-Lautrec, Elles: , Waking Up (1896), Woman Reclining , Waking bistre lithograph, sheet 40 × 52.1 52.1 cm. Yale Yale University Art Gallery, Gallery, Gi of A. Conger Goodyear, BA 1899. 1959.62.4 1.19 Pierre Bonnard, frontispiece for La Lithographie originale en couleurs (1898), color lithograph, 21.5 × 19.5 cm.

1.23 Félix Valloon, The Age of Paper. Paper . Published in Le Cri de Paris , 23 January 1898. Photomechanical print, 28.5 × 19.5 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 2 Wagner as Intimist: Intimi st: Vuillard’s Desmarais Decoration and the Symbolist Theater

2.1 Edouard Vuillard, Desmarais Panels: Stroking the Dog (1892), oil on canvas, 48.5 × 170 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 2.2 Edouard Vuillard, Desmarais Panels: Gardening (1892), oil on canvas, 48.5 × 170 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 2.3 Edouard Vuillard, Desmarais Panels: Nursemaids and Children in a Public Park (1892), oil on canvas, 48.5 × 117 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 2.4 Edouard Vuillard, Desmarais Panels: A Game of Shulecock Shulecock (1892), oil on canvas, 48.5 × 117 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Vuillard Archive, Paris 2.5 Pierre Bonnard, La Geste du roi , , illustration from Le Livre d’art: suite aux Programmes du Théâtre d’Art (1891–92), photomechanical reproduction, 14.3 × 6.8 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France,















    

2.8 Paul Ranson, Le Bateau ivre , illustration from Le Livre d’art: suite aux Programmes du Théâtre d’Art (1891– 92), photomechanical reproduction, 10.8 10.8 × 5.4 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale Nation ale de France, Paris 2.9 Maurice Denis, theater program for Maurice Maeterlinck’s Intérieur (1895), Intérieur (1895), lithograph, sheet 25 × 33.7 cm. Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, New Jersey 2.10 Edouard Vuillard, Solness, le constructeur (The Master Builder) by Builder) by Henrik Ibsen (1894), lithograph in black on brown wove paper, sheet 32.5 × 24.2 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Gi of The Atlas Foundation. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington 2.11 Maurice Denis, The Two Sisters, Fragment of L’Intruse (1891), oil on canvas, 47.5 × 39.5 cm (including frame). Amsterdam. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-

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Louvre, Paris. Inv. 779. Photo: R.G. Ojeda. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 2.16 Georges Antoine Rochegrosse, Knight Among the Flower-Maidens, from Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ (1894), oil on canvas, 235 × 375 cm. Musée d’Orsay , Paris. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ Art Resource, NY. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

3 Modernism and Catholicism in Maurice Denis’s Frauenliebe und Leben

3.1 Maurice Denis, Frauenliebe und Leben: The Communicants (1895), Communicants (1895), oil on canvas, 50 × 90 cm. Private collection. Photograph taken circa 1898. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Lay S aint-Germain-en-Layee 3.2 Maurice Denis, Frauenliebe und Leben: Young Girl at the Mirror (1895), Mirror (1895), oil on canvas, 49 × 34 cm. Private collection.













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3.6 Maurice Denis, Frauenliebe und Leben: Birth (1895), Birth (1895), oil on canvas, approx. 50 × 201 cm. Presumed lost. Photograph taken circa 1898. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germainen-Laye 3.7 Maurice Denis, Frauenliebe und Leben: Childhood (1895), oil on canvas, 53 × 147 cm. Presumed lost. Photograph taken circa 1898. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germainen-Laye 3.8 Maurice Denis, Frauenliebe und Leben: Childhood , installed in the dining room of Harry Kessler’s apartment apartment (aer 1904), Weimar, Germany. Photo credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY 3.9 Félix Valloon, alloon , To Richard Wagner (1891), xylograph on vellum, plate 19.5 × 13.8 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la photographie, Paris 3.10 Félix Valloon, alloon , To Schumann

oil on canvas, 38.2 × 61.2 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germainen-Laye 3.15 Maurice Denis, Four Panels for a Young Girl’s Bedroom: April (1892), April (1892), oil on canvas, canvas, 37.5 × 58.7 cm. Collection KröllerMüller, Oerlo, The Netherlands. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Lay S aint-Germain-en-Layee 3.16 Maurice Denis, Four Panels for a Young Girl’s Bedroom: July (1892), July (1892), oil on canvas, 38 × 60 cm. Fondation Rau pour le Tiers-Monde, Zürich. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, SaintGermain-en-Laye 3.17 Maurice Denis, sketch for Frauenliebe und Leben: Engagement Wreath (1895), charcoal and gouache on paper, 42.7 × 139 cm. Musée Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 3.18 Maurice Denis, sketch for Frauenliebe und Leben: Marriage (1895), charcoal and gouache on paper, 45 ×













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raisonné Maurice Denis, Saint-Germainen-Laye 3.23 Maurice Denis, illustration for L’Imitation de Jésus Christ (1894–1903), (1894–1903), wood engraving aer drawing by Denis, 30 × 25 cm. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 3.24 Paul Gauguin, The Vision Aer the Sermon (1888), oil on canvas, 72.2 × 91 cm. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo credit: Art Resource, NY 3.25 Odilon Redon, The Fairy (Prole of Light) (1882), charcoal and black chalk on paper, 35.9 × 26 cm. Louise Reinhardt Smith Bequest. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY 3.26 Maurice Denis, Crucixion (1903), oil on canvas, 148 × 88 cm. Sacred Heart Chapel, Sainte-Marguerite du Vésinet. Photo credit: © Ile de France, Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel. Photo credit: J.B. Vialles

4.3 Edouard Vuillard, Album: Vuillard, Album: Tapestry Tapestry (Embroidery) (1895), oil on canvas, 176 × 65 cm. New York, Museum of Modern Art, John Hay Whitney Collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris Vuillard, Album: 4.4 Edouard Vuillard, Album: Striped Blouse (1895), oil on canvas, 65 × 58 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Photo credit: Vuillard Vuillard Archive, Paris 4.5 Edouard Vuillard, Vuillard, Album: Album: Vanity Vanity Table (1895), oil on canvas, 65 × 116 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 4.6 Edouard Vuillard, Vuillard, Album: Album: Stoneware Vase (1895), oil on canvas, 65 × 116 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 4.7 Edmond and Jules de Goncourt’s Goncourt’s house in Auteuil, France. Grand salon with replace. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris 4.8 Rudolf Alexandre Schröder,













xiv      

140 × 233 cm. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Kunstgewerbesammlung. Kunstgewerbesammlung. Photo: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Kunstgewerbesammlung. unstgewerbesammlung. Marlen Perez © ZHdK. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SABAM, Brussels 4.12 Henry van de Velde and Georges Lemmen, smoking room exhibited at Siegfried Bing’s Bing’s 1895 Salon de l’Art Nouveau, Paris. Photographed and published in Dekorative Kunst , , Year 1, vol. 3, no. 1 (1898–99), page 19. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SABAM, Brussels 4.13 Maurice Denis, Regaas at PerrosGuirec (1892), Guirec (1892), oil on canvas, 41 × 32 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, on deposit at the Musée de Quimper, France. Photo credit: Catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis, SaintGermain-en-Laye 4.14 Maurice Denis, Pink Boats (1893), wallpaper wallpaper design, gouache on paper glued to cardboard, 79 × 50 cm. Musée Départemental Maurice Denis ‘Le

College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachuses. Massachuses. Purchased with the Drayton Hillyer Fund 4.19 Anonymous, Seignorial Life: 4.19 Embroidery (16th Embroidery (16th century, Southern Netherlands), wool and silk tapestry, 265 × 224 cm. Musée National du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny, Paris. Inv. Cl.2181. Photo: Franck Raux. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ Art Resource, NY 5 The Art of Reverie: Vuillard’s Vaquez Decoration and the Nabis’ Critical Legacy

5.1 Oce of Léon Ginain, as reproduced in ‘Les Maîtres de l’architecture l’architecture française. Académie des Beaux-Arts. M. Léon Ginain,’ La Construction moderne (11 May 1895), page 374. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris Vuillard, Théodore 5.2 Edouard Vuillard, Duret in His Study (1912), oil on board mounted on cradled panel, 95 × 74.5 cm.













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paper, 16.4 × 21.6 cm. Musée Picasso, Paris. Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 5.6 Edouard Vuillard, Schopfer Decoration. Woman Reading on a Bench (1898), distemper on canvas, 214 × 161 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris 5.7 Edouard Vuillard, Schopfer Decoration. Woman Seated in a Garden (1898), distemper on canvas, 214 × 161 cm. Private collection. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris

xv

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the conservatory of the Hohenhof house, Hagen, Germany. Photo credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY. © 2010 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

6.4 Ferdinand Hodler, The Chosen One (1890–1900), tempera, 220 × 300 cm, installed in the siing room of the Hohenhof house, ho use, Hagen, Germany. Photo credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SABAM, Brussels

5.8 Edouard Vuillard, Luncheon at Vasouy (1901), Vasouy (1901), distemper on canvas, le half, 218 × 182 cm. National Gallery, London. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris

6.5 Edouard Vuillard, Promenade (1900), oil on canvas, 260.4 × 248.9 cm, installed (1907) in the living room of the Hohenhof house, Hagen, Germany Ger many.. Photo credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY

5.9 Edouard Vuillard, Luncheon at Vasouy (1901), Vasouy (1901), distemper on canvas, right half, 218 × 182 cm. National Gallery, London. Photo credit: Vuillard Archive, Paris

6.6 Conservatory of the Hohenhof house (1906–08) with Matisse’s ceramic triptych, Hagen, Germany. Photo credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY. © 2010 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ York/















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6.10 Henri Matisse, Music (1910), oil on canvas, 260 × 389 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. © 2010 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

6.11 Henri Matisse, Composition II (Bathers) (circa (Bathers) (circa 1909–10), watercolor watercolor and ink, 21.5 × 29.2 cm. State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. © 2010 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York York













Acknowledgements

In writing this book I have incurred many debts to institutions and individuals. A Fulbright Grant, a Dedalus Dissertation Fellowship, and a Chateaubriand Fellowship funded several years of research in France. A













xviii      

and crucial elements of this project came together during the symposium ‘Towards a Synaesthetic Modernity,’ that we co-organized in the spring of 2007. Timothy Barringer, Juliet Koss, and Debora Silverman asked questions at that symposium that were particularly helpful in shaping Chapter 2. My colleague Joseph Siry commented thoughtfully on numerous dras of this manuscript, and he provided a rock of stability during periods of revision and reorganization. Jenny Anger read a dra of Chapter 4 and generously shared her research and thoughts on the decorative. Rossella FroissartPezone also shared with me her extensive knowledge of the decorative, and pointed me in the direction of several key sources. Aruna D’Souza read an entire dra of my manuscript, and her questioning led me to sharpen my argumentation and connect it to trends in recent scholarship. Two anonymous readers’ reports from Ashgate were extremely helpful in their rigor and thoroughness. I know that this book is beer for them. Portions of this book were presented in the form of invited talks at the Association of Art Historians, the College Art Association, the Musée d’Orsay,













        xix xix

advice, patience, and wisdom. He read more dras of my chapters than any one should, stayed up for late-night discussions, and facilitated and supported my work at every stage. Our two children, Oliver and Nora, arrived in the middle of my writing, and have been incomparable sources of joy. Joan and O’Neill Printy have helped with childcare and kept us from becoming starving scholar-parents. Rudolf and Cecile Kuenzli, my parents, have believed in this project since its inception, and have supported it materially, materially, emotionally, emotionally, and intellectually. intellectually. I dedicate the book to them.



























Introduction













2

     

























4

     

market. Such nancial success, Denis believed, cheapened art’s intellectual and aesthetic value. Buyers acted out of nancial motivation and purchased paintings on speculation, only to resell them when prices climbed. By contrast, the Nabis conceived of art’s riches as above all spiritual, and they constructed decorations as xed ensembles, which eluded market forces. Denis directed his criticism above all to the work of Claude Monet, who famously associated Impressionism with the decorative in the 1880s in his series paintings of the Creuse valley, valley, as well as in his multiple views of Belle-



















































8

     













The Nabis and Intimate Modernism

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