Nabis, les

Group of French painters formed towards the end of the 19th century in an effort to clarify modern purpose in painting. Paul Sérusier, a follower of Gauguin, brought them together and invented the name for them from the Hebrew Nabiim (‘the divinely inspired’). He was joined by Maurice Denis, who became the theoretician of the movement, Paul Ranson, K X Roussel, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Félix Vallotton. The subtitle of Denis's book Théories, ‘From Symbolism and Gauguin towards a new Classic Order’, sums up their aim. Reacting against Impressionism, they sought to give ideas aesthetic form (see Symbolism). The adherence of Bonnard and Vuillard seems fortuitous and it became necessary to invent a special term for their absence of theory. The movement is of note as part of the ferment of ideas that preceded fauvism and cubism.