Post-Impressionism1888
The Talisman
Paul Sérusier
Curator's Eye
"This "color landscape" is a lesson in applied painting: Gauguin taught Sérusier not to copy nature, but to translate his sensations through bold, arbitrary flat areas of color."
Painted on a simple cigar box, this work is the involuntary manifesto of the Nabis and the breaking point with naturalism. Under Gauguin’s guidance, Sérusier liberated pure color, transforming a Breton landscape into a vibrant symbolist abstraction.
Analysis
The Talisman was born from a mystical meeting at the Bois d'Amour in Pont-Aven in October 1888. Paul Sérusier, a young academic painter, received a lesson from Paul Gauguin that would shatter his vision. "How do you see that tree?" Gauguin asked. "Is it green? Then put on green, the finest green in your palette; and that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible." This injunction marked the end of atmospheric perspective and the beginning of the autonomy of the work of art.
Analyzing this small oil on wood reveals a shift toward Symbolism. What appears to be an abstraction is actually a view of the Kerhouel mill reflecting in the Aven river. Sérusier abandoned detail for synthesis, prioritizing raw emotion and inner vision over objective representation. The painting becomes a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order, the very definition of modern art that would later be theorized by Maurice Denis.
The intellectual context is that of a quest for a spiritual "primitivism." Upon returning to Paris, Sérusier presented this study to his colleagues at the Académie Julian as a sacred object, a "talisman." It was around this work that the Nabis group (the prophets in Hebrew) crystallized, seeking to re-inject the sacred into art through a simplified aesthetic influenced by Japanese art and Breton folk arts.
The impact of this work is disproportionate to its size (27 x 21 cm). It foreshadows Fauvism with its chromatic audacity and abstraction with its almost geometric structure. It reminds us that painting is not a window open to the world, but a mental interpretation, a construction of the mind where nature is merely a pretext for the arrangement of forms and shades.
Finally, The Talisman embodies the transition from Impressionism, which captured the luminous moment, to Post-Impressionism, which seeks permanent structure and subjective truth. Sérusier does not try to render sunlight on leaves, but the very idea of autumn, the concept of the forest, and the vibration of water through a palette of fiery yellows and deep blues.
One of the most fascinating secrets is the support itself: a wooden board from a cigar box of the brand "Le Préféré". The improvised nature of this study reinforces its character as a spontaneous "revelation". The grain of the wood is still visible in places, witnessing the creative urgency and the defiance of academic conventions that required carefully prepared canvases.
The painting bears an inscription on the back that long maintained the mystery of its exact origin. Sérusier kept it all his life as a relic. It was only after his death that the work was truly recognized as the starting point of the Nabi movement. The term "Talisman" was not given by the artist immediately, but by his friends who saw it as a spiritual and aesthetic guide.
Another secret lies in the palette: Sérusier used only pure colors, coming directly from the tube, without sophisticated mixing. Gauguin pushed him to this extreme to break his reflexes as a classically trained painter. It is said that Sérusier was so troubled by this audacity that he dared not show the work to his teachers, fearing he would be dismissed for madness or incompetence.
Finally, there is historical uncertainty about the precise location in the Bois d'Amour where the lesson took place. Although the mill is identifiable, the vision is so synthetic that it becomes a mental place. Some critics suggest that Sérusier voluntarily exaggerated the colors under the effect of a sort of hypnosis exercised by Gauguin’s overwhelming personality, making the painting an almost mediumistic work.
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This work is famous for inspiring Maurice Denis's definition of modern art. What radical aesthetic principle did Sérusier apply here under Gauguin's dictation?
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