Maurice Denis's 'Définition du Néo-traditionnisme' and anti-naturalism (1890)

Author(s): RICHARD THOMSON and BELINDA THOMSON

Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 154, No. 1309, Art in nineteenth-century France
(APRIL 2012), pp. 260-267
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
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 Maurice Denis's 'Definition du Neo-traditionnisme'
and anti-naturalism (1890)
by RICHARD and BELINDA THOMSON

maurice denis's Definition du Neo-traditionnisme is one of the

key texts of early Modernism.1 Published under the rubric 'Notes
d'art' in the periodical Art et critique in August 1890, this com
bative article quite rapidly became what Denis had no doubt
intended: a focus of debate. Within six to nine months the term
'neo-traditionnisme' was being widely used by young critics
writing in equivalent periodicals about contemporary painting:
Alphonse Germain in Le Moniteur des arts in March 1891, Jules
Antoine in La Revue independante in April and Georges Roussel
in La Plume in May.2 Denis had given insistent form to a set of
aesthetic arguments which had to be taken into account: or
rather Pierre Louis had done so, for Denis had published under
that pseudonym. The reasons for this deception are not imme
diately clear, but his readers seem, initially at least, to have been
misled. In his Moniteur des arts review of the 1891 Salon des
Independants, Germain quoted Pierre Louis's text in one para
graph and in the next addressed the exhibited work of Maurice
Denis, without appearing to know that the two were the same.3
By 1894, if not before, Denis's authorship was publicly acknowl
edged. That year La Depeche de Toulouse staged an exhibition in
Toulouse of work by young Parisian artists, including Denis.
The newspaper's director, Arthur Hue, wrote an introductory
article for his south-western readership in which he cited the
'Notes d'art' that Denis had published four years earlier on 'la nou
velle ecole neo-traditionniste', claiming that his ideas about modern
painting were as important as Victor Hugo's preface to Cromwell
31. The martyrdom of St Denis, by Leon Bonnat. 1884-8$. Canvas, marouffle to the
had been for Romanticism.4 Subsequent art-historical writing
wall, dimensions unknown. (Pantheon, Paris).
has tended to view Denis's text either as a herald of abstract
art, which is to take it out of context, or to lay emphasis on its
idealism, aptly seeing the Definition as the first step in Denis's long second — building Denis's argument point by point. Headed in
road as a highly influential writer on modernist art and CatholiRoman numerals, the propositions use emphatic parlance, often
cism. However, the Definition has not yet been accorded thebeginning in the first person — 'Je cherche', 'Je ne sais pourquoi' — or
close reading that places it firmly within the cultural co-ordinateswith imperative instructions, as does the celebrated opening sen
of its drafting, a reading that examines not only what Denis was tence: 'Se rappeler qu'un tableau — avant d'etre un cheval de bataille,
arguing for but also what he was pitting himself against. une femme nue, ou un quelconque anecdote — est essentiellement une
The Definition appeared in two instalments in Art et critique, surface plane recouverte de couleurs en un certain ordre assemblies' ,s This
on 23 rd and 30th August 1890, taking the form of twenty-fiveassertive, confident and inquiring tone may have been learned
propositions or sections — fifteen in the first article and ten in the from Denis's not-so-far-distant rhetoric classes at the Lycee

This article was first presented as a paper at a seminar on the Nabis organised by Gauguin, together with the impact of the Definition on the artist's painted ceuvre in
the international network Redefining European Symbolism, 1880—1910, funded bytwo essays: J.-P. Bouillon: 'Denis: du bon usage des theories', in C. Freches-Thory
the Leverhulme Trust, and held at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 26th and U. Perruchi-Petri, eds.: exh. cat. Nabis 1888—1900, Zurich (Kunsthaus) and Paris
November 2010. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Chris Stolwijk(Grand Palais) 1993-94, PP-6i-67; and idem: 'Denis, Taine, Spencer: les origines
and Craig Landt, and to the participants at the seminar for their observations. positivistes du mouvement nabi', in Maurice Denis: six essais, Paris 2006, pp.13—45.
1 P. Louis [Maurice Denis]: 'Notes d'Art. Definition du Neo-traditionnisme', Art et 2 A. Germain: 'A l'Exposition des Independants. Neo-luminaristes et neo
critique 65 (23rd August 1890), pp.540-42; and 66 (30th August 1890), pp.$56-58traditionnistes', he Moniteur des arts (27th March 1891), p.513; J. Antoine: 'Georges
(hereafter cited as Denis 1890). Definition du Neo-tradionnisme was reprinted in the firstSeurat', Revue independante 19 (April 1891), p.92; and G. Roussel: 'Critique
volume ofDenis's collected writings, Theories, Paris 1912 (2nd ed. 1920, pp.i—13). Todramatique. Theatre d'Art', La Plume 49 (1st May 1891), p.156.
date we are unaware of any complete English translation. Important extracts (with 3 Germain, op. cit. (note 2), p.513.
occasional faults of translation) are included in H.B. Chipp: Theories of Modem Art, A * 'Homodei' [Arthur Hue]: 'Nos Expositions. L'Art nouveau', La Depeche de
Source Book by Artists and Critics, Los Angeles and London 1968, pp.94—100. Jean-PaulToulouse (20th May 1894).
Bouillon in his anthology of Denis's theoretical writings, Le Ciel et VArcadie, Paris 5 Denis 1890, p.540.
1993, offers many valuable editorial annotations; he explores the philosophical6 T.P. Carter: "'Les Petites Revues" and the Embattled Periodical: "Art et Critique"
origins and logical development of the artist's thinking, the debt to Serusier and (1889—1892)', The French Review 46/3 (February 1973), pp.478—79.

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 DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU N E O-TR A D ITI O N NI SM E '

Condorcet. Art et critique itself was a relatively

published.
new periodical
When he in wrote about artists and works of art,
the hectic firmament of literary and artistic which
publications which
crop up frequendy to punctuate the ideas fizzing
blossomed in France after the Third Republic's theliberalisation
Definition, heofnecessarily had only a limited range of re
the press laws in 1881. Its first issue appeared on
This 5th
was
June
that1889,
of the nineteen-year old, and it is useful to
edited by Jean Jullien (1854-1919). Art etquantify critique it.
claimed
Denis knew the museum in his home town o
neutrality in the cultural antagonisms of the day. It acceptedon the western outskirts of Paris. In
Germain-en-Laye,
1884, aged
Symbolism, offering its columns to the contributors of Laonly thirteen, he recorded in his journal a visi
Vogue
when that review went bankrupt in 1889 and the publishing original
town's collections, then housed in the mairie, regrett
texts by Stephane Mallarme, Paul Verlaine andthe Charles
great Morice,
masters were not better represented and, with
but its core interest was in naturalist theatre. enthusiasm,
Jullien himself had to classify the collection by schools.1
planning
had plays staged at the Theatre Libre, then the mid-teens, Denis
leading stage had started to visit the Louvre; when h
for
such work: La Sbenade in 1887 and L'Echeance proposition III with the injunction 'Allez au Musee' h
two years later.6
meant recalled
Andre Antoine, a leading light of the Theatre Libre, the Louvre.15
with He may have known other Paris mu
gratitude how Jullien had used the periodical to such as thethis
support Luxembourg,
new devoted to state purchases from
current.7 It was through the young actor Aurelienfew decades, although they are not mentioned in his pu
Lugne-Poe,
with whom Denis and Edouard Vuillard had studied journal. By 1890
at the Lycee he also had a few years' knowledge
Condorcet, that Denis secured an introductionofficial annual
to Jullien andSalons,
the which he first seems to have visited
and probably
prompting to publish his Definition in Art et critique. a shorter experience of the Salon des Indep
Lugne-Poe
and d'art
wrote to Denis in April 1890: 'Si tu as des notes of dealers such fives
assez as Durand-Ruel and Boussod & Valadon.16
He wouldTu
et assez actuelles, porte-les done ou envoie-les H Jullien. have
enseen the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and we
tireras
knowcame
beaucoup de profit'.* Jullien and the two painters he visited the Cafe
to move inVolpini exhibition there.17 He would
also have had
the same circles at this time, according to Lugne-Poe's access to decorations in major public buildings
memoirs.9
in Paris, for
Art et critique would not have been an inappropriate example
oudet for the Pantheon.18 He certainly knew the
mural decorations bywas
Denis's first published text: it was new and up-to-the-minute, Hippolyte Flandrin in the church of St
Germain-des-Pres.19
relatively inclusive, and printed articles sympathetic to radical But by August 1890 Denis had never visited
painting, such as Jules Antoine's review ofa provincial,
the Cafe letVolpini
alone a foreign museum. His aesthetic range was
exhibition mounted by Paul Gauguin and others ambitious and his intellectual instincts challenging, but his actual
in 1889.10
Two points about Denis and the Definition experience
mightofbe looking
madeat art was distincdy limited. The very con
at the outset, both of them predicated on Denis's youth and,
tingency of his frame of reference which made the Definition so
therefore, his relative inexperience. Born on 25th November
topical for his contemporary readers has rendered it increasingly
obscure for twentieth-
1870, Denis was only nineteen years old when the Definition was and twenty-first-century readers.
published. Brilliant in its rhetorical languageThe andfirst
itspoint concerns the art that the young Denis knew
forceful
ideas, it was undoubtedly an intellectual tour and
de the extent
force of his
for framework of visual reference. At times in
a stu
the Definition
dent who had only passed the concours to be admitted he is Ecole
to the very specific, mentioning works of art by
des Beaux-Arts on 18th July 1888 and the secondname, some of which
part of were
his in Paris public collections. The very
baaalaureat on 20th November that year.1' As first
with work
anycited, with no mention of the artist's name, is Le
writer,
Pauvre pecheur debts.
and especially a young one, Denis had his intellectual by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (Musee d'Orsay,
He knew his ideas had sources and stimuli, Paris).20
and he graciously
Although exhibited at the Salon of 1881, the painting
had not been
acknowledged them. In proposition V of the Definition he purchased
refers for the Luxembourg until 19th
November
to the writings of Charles Henry, Herbert Spencer 1887,
and immediately before the opening of Puvis de
Alexan
dre Bain.12 Elsewhere, in proposition XVI, Chavannes's
Denis wrote retrospective
'Paul at Durand-Ruel at which it was
shown.
Serusier expliquait. . .', suggesting that some of theLeideas
Pauvrehepecheur
was may have dated from 1881, but for
articulating originated in conversation with hisDenis it wasand
friend a 'new' work that he first saw during his visit
fellow
painter, six years his senior.1' to the Puvis exhibition on 17th December 1887.21 The Defini
Looking back on the Definition we admire its tion also mentions,
youthful vervedisparagingly, Leon Bonnat's forcefully
modelled Martyrdom
and confidence, but hitherto scholarship has neither adequately of St Denis, a painting which probably
acknowledged its writer's inexperience nordrew - inDenis's ire because- its melodramatic physicality seems at
particular
odds with what
attempted to assess how that inexperience defined its decorative
Denispurpose (Fig.31).22 Denis might have

7 A. Antoine: Mes Souvenirs sur le Theatre Libre, Paris 1921, p. 147. 17 Although he did not write about the Volpini exhibition directly in the Definition,
" Cited in J. Robichez: Le Symbolisme au tin'Sure: Lugne-Poe et les debuts de I'ceuvre,Denis retrospectively recorded the important impact it made on him in publications
Paris 1957, p. 107. appearing in 1895, 1905, 1909 and 1934; see H. Lemonedes, B. Thomson and A.
v A. Lugne-Poe: La Parade. I. Le Sot du tremplin, Paris 1930, pp.74-75. Juszczak et al: exh. cat. Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1889, Cleveland (Museum of Art) and
Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum) 2009-10, pp.210-13.
10 J. Antoine: 'Impressionnistes et synthetistes', Art et critique 24 (9th November
1889), pp.369-^1. The vertical format, layered composition and pale tonality of Denis's Homere
" H. Adhemar: exh. cat. Maurice Denis, Paris (Orangerie des Tuileries) 1970,
parcourani la campagne (c.1889; private collection) suggests first-hand knowledge of
p.90. Puvis's Sainte Genevieve en pnere (1874; Pantheon, Paris) and L'Enfance ie Sainte
IJ Denis 1890, p.541. Genevieve (1874-78; Pantheon, Paris).
" Denis 1890, p.556. "> Denis 1957, p.66 (18th August 1886).
14 M.Denis: Journal. Tome I (1884-1904), Paris 1957, p. 11 (3rd August 1884); and p. 15 Denis 1890, p.540.
(12th August 1884) (hereafter cited as Denis 1957). A. Brown Price: Pierre Puvis de Chamnnes. Vol. II. A Catalogue Raisonne of the Painted
,s For example, see the visit to the Louvre; ibid., p.41 (20th August 1885). Work, New Haven and London 2010, p.239. Denis visited the Puvis retrospective at
Durand-Ruel on 17th December 1887; Denis 1957, p.67 (18th December 1887).
Denis visited the Salon on 21st May 1885; ibid., p.59 (22nd May 1885). He mentions
seeing work by Gauguin at the Boussod & Valadon gallery in Denis 1890, p.557. " Denis 1890, p.556.

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE • CLIV - APRIL 20 12 261

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DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU NEO-TRADITIONNISME'

33-Jean-Francois
32. Nous vous donnerons 25 francs pour commencer, by Vaccination, by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret. 1882. Canvas, dimensions and where
Raffaelli.
c.i883—84. Oil on board laid down on panel, $0 by abouts
65unknown.
cm. (Private collection).

remembered this from the Salon of 1885,

In otherwhen
instanceshe was
Denis's four are more oblique,
references
but recently
teen, but he may well have seen it more might allude to
atwork
its shown
perma at the 1889 Decennale. He
nent installation in the Pantheon. found Ernest Meissonier's obsession with Napoleon's features
The evidence of specifically cited works in the Definition
'grotesque', a response possibly encouraged by October 1806
makes it clear that the Exposition Universelle held in Paris
(Fig. 3 4), a typically detailed representation of the emperor
during the summer months of 1889 had made a powerful impactcalmly overseeing the victory at Jena which Denis could have
on the young Denis and was fresh in his mind when he wrote it seen both at the Decennale and at the Societe Nationale des
a year later. Above all it was the Decennale, the section devotedBeaux-Arts in 1890.27 Denis made facetious references to the
to French work of the last decade, that he remembered as he excessive detail of the ordnance in Edouard Detaille's military
paintings and the bracelets in Auguste Toulmouche's pictures
wrote his text in the summer of 1890. The Definition cites no less
than six works from this exhibition by title, artist or both. Oneof well-dressed young women.28 He would have known
Detaille's Panorama de Rezonville, on view at the Panorama
of these is Andre Rixens's Mort d'Agrippine (Musee des Beaux
Arts, Beziers), first shown at the Salon of 1881, which attempts national, 5 rue de Berri, from 1887 to 1892, and plenty of
to heighten the actuality of its historical subject with its graceweaponry can also be found in Le Reve (Musee d'Orsay, Paris),
lessly represented naked empress.23 Another is Albert Besnard's shown at the Salon of 1888 and again at the Decennale.
chromatically flamboyant Portrait of Mme Roger Jourdain (Musee Bracelets are as common in Toulmouche's work as military
Jules Cheret, Nice), from the Salon of 1886, which Denis calls materiel in Detaille's, and inevitably they featured in pictures at
'la Femme jaune' and an example of a modest adaptation of an the Decennale such as Le Baiser or Envoi defleurs.29 Denis chose
established formula.24 He particularly showed his prejudices as targets for his disparagement of documentary naturalism
against the different kinds of descriptive naturalism of contem artists particularly prized by the wider public for their special
porary and often lower-class subjects that had proliferated in ised attention to detail.

recent Salons and were given additional validation by inclusion If Denis selected quite a number of his targets for the Defini
in the Decennale. Two works by Jean-Franfois Raffaelli, Vieux tion from his memories of the Decennale, it is noteworthy
menage sans enfants (present location unknown) and Nous vous that he did not do so with the Centennale, the survey of French
art
donnerons 25 francs pour commencer (Fig. 3 2), are cited one after the since 1789. Leaving aside passing references to Ingres
other as 'ridicule' in their detailing of ugliness.25 Pascal Dagnanand Delacroix, the only possible allusion to the Centennale is
Bouveret gets credit from Denis for moving on from tedious when Denis wrote that Manet was 'de lagrandefiliere'.3° Such an
contemporary subjects such as Vaccination (Fig.33), first exhibitedassessment could easily have been made from seeing works such
at the Exposition nationale in 1883, to more recent works such as Le Fifre, Olympia, Le Toreador tue and Le Bon Bock, a selection
made by Manet's old friend Antonin Proust, organiser of
as La Vierge (Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich),
from the Salon of 1885.26 the Centennale, probably with the precise goal of establishing

23 F.-G. Dumas, ed.: Exposition Universelle de i88g: catalogue illustre des beaux-arts
Beaux-Arts, I (1890—1895), Paris 2000, p.26; and Denis 1890, p.541.
(i78g-i88g), Lille 1889, no. 1196; and Denis 1890, p.556; http://digi.ub.uni-heidel
28 Denis 1890, pp.541 and 557.
berg.de/diglit/dumasi889. 29 Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), nos.1320 and 1318.
2♦ Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), no.in; and Denis 1890, p.557. 30 Denis 1890, p.242.
25 Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), nos.1165 and 1164; and Denis 1890, p.557. 31 G. Lafenestre: La Tradition dans lapeinturefrangaise, Paris n.d. [c.1890], nos.485 and
26 Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), no.373; and Denis 1890, p.542. 487-89.
27 Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), no. 1009; Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts,32
1890,
Paul Gauguin to Emile Schuffenecker, September 1889, in M. Malingue, ed.: Paul
no.613, reprinted in G. Dugnat: Les Catalogues des salons de la Societe Nationale des Lettres <i safemme et cl ses amis, Paris 1946, pp.164—66.
Gauguin,

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 DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU NE O - TR AD ITIO N NI S M E '

Manet in the great 'tradition'.31 It also accurately reflects the

younger generation's general verdict on Manet's triumph at
the Centennale, a message Gauguin picked up in Brittany:
'La lutte a Pont-Aven est terminee , Gauguin informed Emile
Schuffenecker in a letter of September 1889, 'tout le monde est
mate et I'atelier Julian commence a virer de bord pour blaguer I'ecole.
Le triomphe de Manet a la centenale [sic] les ecrase'.32 Gauguin had
written about this very topic in 'Notes sur l'art a L'Exposition
Universelle' the first of his articles for Le Moderniste, published
on 4th July 1889."
Curiously enough, most of the specific references made in the
Definition can be traced back to 18 89; far fewer come from 1890,
the year of its publication. Denis seems to have made no men
tion of any work from the 1890 Salon des Artistes Frangais, at
which he made his own Salon debut. Ironically, he does cite two
specific works from the rival Salon de la Societe Nationale des
Beaux-Arts, whose inaugural exhibition opened on 15th May
34- October 1806, by Ernest Meissonier. 1887-90. Canvas, 108.6 by
1890, three months before the publication of the Definition.
(Private collection).
Approvingly he mentioned the affecting linear simplicity of
the Femme en rouge by Louis Anquetin and disapprovingly the
portrait of Antonin Proust by Alfred Roll, both pastels (Figs. 3 5
review
and 36).34 In this there is a possible link back with
to the an account of the submissions by
Decennale,
for when Denis wrote that Roll's portrait of Proust
Gogh, reminded
'qui sculpte ses pay sages en meme temps qu'il le
him of a Bouguereau he might well have been realise des reliefs
thinking ofmontagneux,
the d'osees perspectives, de
similarly descriptive self-portrait that the de
latter had desflammes
modeles, shown at the
colorees veritablement imprevues
Decennale (1879; Montreal Museum of Fine Geffroy
Arts).35said next to nothing about Van Gog
What should be evident from all these references
discussingishis
that the
canvases in terms of the audacious an
works Denis specifically itemised - with aapplication of paint.39
few exceptions such If Geffroy was sympathe
painting,
as Puvis's Pauvre pecheur and Anquetin's Femme Alfred
en rouge — de Lostalot was less so. His re
are,
Independants
despite their varied subjects and execution, for the March 1890 La Chronique
essentially natural
ist images, founded on close observation and description
supplement of
to the establishment Gazette des Beaux
objective reality. One artist who is named fourof
in a tone times with discomfort: ' On y voit des
generalised
no particular work being cited — William
point Bouguereau — is
de tapisserie, des images champlevees sur unfond
also understood as fundamentally naturalist:'intimementpersuade
leur, et enfin, tentative nouvelle, des paysages faits au
paraphes
qu'il copie la "nature"'.36 This was an implicit tourbillonnants
condemnation of qui donnent le vertige'A0 L
the teaching at the Academie Julian, where although Denis had been
less sympathetically, Lostalot also discuss
trained and where Bouguereau was one stylistically adventurous
of the leading profes work on view — perha
sors. There, he complained, students wereVan Gogh's
taught thatin mind — in terms of making: tou
drawing
colour,
was all about ' emmanchements', the physical rhythmic
articulation drawing.
of the
joints, a reduction to the merely material Onefor which
of the Denis
subtexts of the Definition was to score
condemned naturalism.37 The choice of such thespecific
Neo-Impressionists,
examples, by 1890 the distinctiv
presence at the Independants.
targeted allusions and critical rhetoric makes very clear that a Denis's Neo-tradition
fundamental plank of Denis's argumentwas evidently
in the intended
Definition is a to establish a provocativ
between
determined rejection of the practice of and the descriptive
taste for recently established group around Geo
naturalism. and Paiil Signac and the emergent one for who
acting as spokesman.
The second point is that, exciting as were Denis's ideas in The provocation was even
for
the Definition, with their reaction against Signac was
naturalism actually
and their the first artist named in the
unflattering conjunction
emphasis on synthese, arabesques and rhythm, they were by no with Bouguereau. Den
both are equally convinced
means as revolutionary as one might think. In fact, in 1890 they that the way they paint
by being, in essence,
were quite commonplace in art criticism. That year the Salon naturalists: in Signac's case
his scientific observation
des Independants was held between 20th March and 27th April. of the way chromatics are
Bouguereau's
Writing for the Revue d'aujourd'hui, Gustave Geffroy case
endedto his
copying the way 'nature' looks

« Denis
33 For a discussion of the Centennale and Decennale 1890, and
exhibitions p.541.
the impact
38 G. Public',
they made on Gauguin, see B. Thomson: 'Gauguin Goes GefBroy: in'Chronique d'art. Independants', Revue d'aujotird'h
Lemonedes,
Thomson and Juszczak et al, op. cit. (note 17), pp.29—72.
p.270.
39 Interestingly,
34 Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Exposition de 1890. Catalogue Van Gogh isdepeinture,
de ouvrages not mentioned by Denis, who may not even have
sculpture et gravure exposes au Champ-de-Mars, Paris 1890,known nos.914—15
of his recent death on 29th July
(either of 1890.
these
■t° A. de
could have been the Anquetin cited) and no.1164 (Roll); Lostalot:
see Denis 'Concours
1890, & expositions',
p.557 La Chronique des arts 13 (29th March
1890),
35 Denis 1890, p.557; and Dumas, op. cit. (note 23), no. 160.p.99.
36 Denis 1890, p.540. ♦' Denis 1890, p. 540.

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 DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU NEO-TRADITIONNISME'

the fact that it is so often cited while the remainder of the

article is ignored, it is worth recalling that there are several
passages in the subsequent twenty-four propositions that com
plicate this initial message, including certain references that
take one by surprise.
What are the positive examples that Denis sets up? First there
is his openly stated debt to Serusier. Between the time of the
formation of the Nabi group in autumn 1888 and the summer
of 1890 when the Definition appeared, Serusier had spent a con
siderable proportion of his time in Brittany, working alongside
Gauguin. It was to Pont-Aven that he returned in a spirit of high
excitement in July 1889, immediately after the Academie Julian
year ended, propelled by the shock and conviction of seeing the
work of Gauguin and friends — Emile Bernard, Emile Schuffe
necker, Louis Anquetin and others — at the Cafe Volpini, the
venue they had colonised within the site of the Exposition
Universelle. The excitement was promptly dashed, as he record
ed in a letter to Denis, by what he initially experienced as
Gauguin's 'fumisterie'. But then almost as promptly, in the more
tranquil atmosphere of Le Pouldu, his faith in Gauguin was
restored.43 The lessons he gleaned and ideas he was sharing with
Gauguin were transmitted by letter to his new band of followers
in Paris; Denis was his most receptive interlocutor, since he was
more drawn than were the other group members to debating
serious and philosophical ideas. By his own admission he was
a willing victim of Serusier's propaganda, studying for his
philosophy baccalaureat so recently.44 A key exchange of letters
35- Antonin Proust,
between Serusier and Denis in 1889—90 lies behind the drafting
by Alfred Roll.
1890. Pastel, of the Definition, revealing that it was indeed the fruit of a
dimensions and collaboration, and that as well as being an intellectual jousting
whereabouts
with or against naturalism, there was a kind of prophetic mission
unknown.
behind its publication. Understanding how their ideas developed
and what their beliefs promoted gives a clearer idea of why this
is an irony here. In May 1890, just three months before theartistic collective took the name Nabis, or prophets.
appearance of the Definition in Art et critique, Felix Feneon had In an important letter, datable to August 1889, towards the
published an extended appreciation of Signac and his work in the end of his period of cohabitation with Gauguin, Serusier lays
series Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui. For Feneon, 'M. Paul Signac peut out in analytical ways the mission the Nabis were making
creer les exemplaires specimens d'un art a grand developpement decoratiftheir own.45 This was, in brief, the aesthetic reinvigoration of
qui sacrifie I'anecdote a Varabesque, la nomenclature a la synthese, la contemporary art by reference to its best traditions. With a
fugace au permanent, et, dans les fetes et les prestiges, confere a lamethodical brain Serusier subdivides the problem, as he sees it,
Nature, que lassait a la fin sa realite precaire, une authentique Realite'.*2 not wishing to produce a formula, but at least to make sense, in
The ideas and language here are significant. First Feneon argues a logical, quasi-mathematical way, of what had gone wrong
that Signac's Neo-Impressionist work goes beyond 'anecdote' with art in the late nineteenth century. For Serusier 'Art' was
and ' realite precaire'; in other words it is anti-naturalist. Second, to made up in part of immutable and unchanging principles, as
achieve ' une authentique Realite' in his work, Signac uses stylisticunderstood by the science of aesthetics. These principles of
means such as the 'arabesque' and 'synthese'. Both anti-naturalism harmony were understood instinctively by artists as various as
and this exact terminology were to be found a few months laterthe Italian primitives, the Japanese printmakers and the great
in Denis's Definition. individual geniuses, such as Rembrandt, Velazquez, Delacroix,
At this juncture we need to remind ourselves of the purpose Corot and Manet. It was quite possible to discover them by
of this daringly bold set of propositions, and look in more detail comparing different works by different masters from all parts of
at how the Definition's anti-naturalist message played out. the world. There was also a personal, changing element to art,
Given the punchy impact of Denis's opening proposition, andand this ranged from the individual handwriting or signature

*2 F. Feneon: 'Signac', Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui 373 (1890), repr. in J.U. Halperin,
obligation, Serusier seems to have been in Le Pouldu again from late September to
ed.: Felix Feneon, ceuvres plus que completes, I, Geneva 1970, p. 177. 17th October. He was certainly back in Paris by 22nd November since he visited
43 It is difficult to plot Serusier's 1889 Brittany visits given the haphazard dating
Denisof
with other Nabis that day. Sources consulted include the group of letters
his, Denis's and Gauguin's published letters. It seems that he arrived in Pont-Aven in to the third edition of P. Serusier: ABC de lapeinture, ed. H. Boutaric, Paris
appended
July 1889. After his initial disappointment he moved from there to Le Pouldu and
1950; Denis's letters to Lugne-Poe in Lugne-Poe, op. cit. (note 9); Malingue, op. cit.
shared a room with Gauguin for a fortnight at the Hotel Destais, before leaving to32); and Ranson's letters to Denis in B. Ranson Bitker and G. Genty: Paul
(note
join his family who were holidaying in Villerville. He was also obliged that year Catalogue raisonne, Paris 1999.
Ranson:
to do his twenty-eight days of military service. Either before or after fulfilling
44this
'De cette propagande jefus la premiere victime, prepare que j'etais par mon annee de philo

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 DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU NE O-TR AD ITIO N NIS M E '

style of a given painter to more broad overarching styles such as

the Gothic or the Egyptian. Choice of subject was part of this
changing individual aspect of art, but should be no more than a
pretext for an assemblage of particular forms, lines and colours,
never the dominant priority. Under his second heading, 'Metier',
that is the practice or technical side of art, Serusier again isolated
two aspects, namely the knowledge or science of technique, of
colour for instance, which could certainly be taught and handed
down in the form of tradition, and then the element of skill
or dexterity. This last element, which Serusier believed to be
currently overvalued, implicitly in the art school teaching of
Bouguereau and his ilk and in the contemporary taste for detailed
descriptive painting, was on the contrary something the artist
should discourage if not actively suppress.
In about June the following year, soon after drafting his Def
inition, Denis wrote a letter to Serusier in which, referring to
Jullien's likely publication of 'des notes d'Art tres/ranches quej'ai',
he lays out the more pragmatic and indeed careerist circum
stances that helped to bring the article into being. Urged on by
Lugne-Poe, Denis had been persuaded that the time was ripe to
make more 'tentatives violentes' to get their works seen and their
names spoken about.46 He refers to the targeted audience of
these violent efforts, namely those people who were already
36. Femme en rouge, by Louis Anquetin. 1890. Pastel on paper, 5
familiar with the leading spokesman of the Neo-Impressionists,
51 cm. (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tournai).
Signac, and the leading figure of cloisonism, Anquetin, and
were eager to hear more about the emergent group of experi
mental young artists. So the Definition was aimed not so much
at a broad public as at a particular public made up of potential
supporters from the art and theatre world, such as their future
protector, the actor Coquelin cadet. Denis was also propagan
dising art students seeking a new direction, havering between
the precepts they were receiving from their teachers at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts or the Academie Julian and their possible
interest in the solutions proposed by the Neo-Impressionists.
While Serusier was enjoying the tranquillity of Brittany and the
stimulus of working alongside Gauguin, the rest of the band
back in Paris were sparing no efforts to be talked about. Unlike
Serusier, who had a wealthy and supportive family, for Denis
personally this courting of publicity was an urgent matter; he
needed to prove to his sceptical parents, unhappy about his
rejection of the sensible engineering route his father would
have preferred, that he could make a name for himself and gain
financial success as an artist.47
Apart from the topical modern artists he mentions, Denis
brings to the Definition positive examples of the much earlier art
he had studied in the Louvre that had inspired his vocation as a
painter, and specifically a religious painter - yet still, curiously,
he discusses the primitive art of the Italian quattrocento in terms
of its naturalism. When he mentions 'les Predelles de I'Angelico' he
is referring to the predellas of the Coronation of the Virgin (scenes
from the life of St Dominic); he also mentions Ghirlandaio's
37- Calvaire breton, by Paul Gauguin. 1889. Canvas, 92 by 73.5 c
(Musees
Portrait of an old man and his grandson.4§ He Royaux des Beaux-Arts,
even touches in Brussels).

aux divagations esthetiques'. M. Denis: 'Paul Serusier, sa 45 See

vie, Serusier,
son oeuvre', op. cit.
in P. (note 43), pp.42—45.
Serusier:
46In
ABC de la peinture, Paris 1942 (2nd ed.), pp.37-121. Letter
1908 from
Denis Maurice Denis to Paul Serusier wrongly date
acknowledged
his debt to Serusier: 'C'est a lui que je dois la lucidite internal references
avec laquelle, to late May
dans I'article or early June 1890; ibid., pp. 50-51
d'Art
47 Inune
et critique, jefixais les points essentiels du systeme: le tableau, this same letter
surface Denis writes, 'nous sommes trois assez inquiets
plane recouverte
de vivre
de couleurs en un certain ordre assemblies; I'art, sanctification avec la I'expression
de la nature; Peintureibid., par p.50. The three concerned were p
Vceuvre elle-meme et non par le sujet represente; etc'; M. Vuillard
Denis:and either Bonnard or Paul
'Le peintre Paul Ranson.
Serusier',
L'Occident 85 (December 1908), pp.278-80. 48 Denis 1890, p.541.

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DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU N E O - T R AD ITI O N NIS M E '

38. Le Toussaint, by
Emile Friant. 1888.
Canvas, 254 by 334
cm. (Musee des
Beaux-Arts, Nancy).

passing upon contemporary architecture, contrasting the eclecticGauguin qui serait propose comme personnalite dominante du neo
and inharmonious decoration to be found in the ostentatious traditionnisme ,52 In the Definition Denis tries to imagine Gau
nouveau riche quartiers of the Pare Monceau and rue Pierre Char
guin's stylised and simplified Calvaire (Fig.37) executed by
Emile Friant. The latter had won the Prix du Salon in 1889 for
ron with the unity to be found in eighteenth-century decoration,
an epoch for which he, like many at that period, seemed his
to highly naturalistic Toussaint (Fig.38), which Denis may
feel considerable nostalgia.49 The artist he cites here, Taraval,have
is had in mind as exemplifying the surface actuality he
scarcely remembered today; but that obscurity is in a sense
found inappropriate for a painting of religious feeling. The
Denis's point, for even the mediocre and unmemorable artistscontrast
of makes the point for him that the viewer's 'impression
the ancien regime, working in the wake of Boucher, had a shared
superieure d'ordre moral in front of the Gauguin derives not from
sense of the decorative that in his view had sadly disappeared the motif but from the representation, its forms and colours."
by the last decade of the nineteenth century.50 Compared with By the summer of 1890 Gauguin was already beginning to
Taraval, there was no conceivable architectural setting in which make an impact on Denis's own work whether in terms of his
Rixens's Agrippina or Bonnat's Martyrdom of St Denis could be more daring use of colour, his confidence in tackling spiritual
made to look harmonious.51 and mystic themes or his experimentation as a wood carver and
But the main hero of the Definition, in Denis's mind at least, a draughtsman.
was Gauguin. Looking forward, in his letter to Serusier, to The anonymity of his nom de plume gave Denis greater free
the Definition's publication, Denis exclaims: 'Qu'est-ce qu'on dom of manoeuvre in drafting the Definition. In fact it was quite
attend done pour crier tres haut, puisqu'on ne le veut pas voir, que common to write for Art et critique under an assumed name; Paul
I'auteur du "Calvaire", de "La lutte defacob" et du bas-relief "Soyez Signac had done so in February 1890 when he wrote a review
amoureuses" est tout simplement un maitre? Car ilfaut lepreciser e'est of the current Les XX show under the initials S.P., a duplicity

49 Denis 1890, p.556. '2 See letter cited at note 46 above.

50 Hugues Taraval (1725—85), member of a distinguished family of painters and « Denis 1890, p.557.
architects, painted mural and ceiling decorations for the Galerie d'Apollon in the 54 S.P. [Paul Signac]: 'Catalogue de l'Exposition des XX a Bruxelles', Art el critique
Louvre as well as for various French royal palaces. 36 (1st February 1890), pp.76-^8.
51 Denis 1890, p.556. " Denis 1890, p.557.

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 DENIS'S 'DEFINITION DU NEO-TRADITIONNISME'

TJX£

The Transteverina. 65

She, squarely built, heavy, shaking her shawl

by an impatient shrug of her shoulders, with
a free gait like a
man's. She was
tolerably cheerful,
her speech was
loud, and from
time to time she
turned round to
see if we followed, 40. Illustration for Paul Verlaine's Sagesse, by Maurice Denis. 1889. Lithograph, 5.2
familiarly shout by 11.8 cm. (Bibliotheque nationale, Paris).
ing and calling by
name those of us
she happened to
know, accentua
ting her words by
much gesticula
tion as she
would have Denis's drawings for Sagesse were only finally published by
39- Illustration
hailed a fish Ambroise Vollard in 1911.56
ing boat on
for Alphonse the Tiber. If the publication of the Definition did no harm to Denis's
Daudet's When we
Femtnes reached status among the Nabi group - Paul Ranson congratulated him
d'artistes, by their house, the concierge, furious at seeing warmly on it in a letter that autumn" — neither did it damage his
Felicien von so noisy a crew at such an unearthly hour,
standing among certain of the artists he had cited either. That
Myrbach
Rheinfeld. November Denis was able to tell Lugne-Poe: 'Bonnes relations
1889 (English s'ajoutent aux anciennes: le pere et leftls Pissarro. Nous sommes tres
ed. 1890). bien avec Signac'.sS Gauguin too seems to have appreciated the
Wood
engraving,
importance of this theoretical support. On his arrival in Paris in
12.5 by 9 cm. early November 1890, meeting the Paris-based Nabis for the
(Private first time, he was impressed by the degree of interest they had
collection).
aroused within literary circles, and there was even talk of his
publishing in the Mercure de France additional notes in response
to Denis's Definition.59 It appears that no such article was
which allowed him to make a favourable mention of his own
published, but one suspects that instead of taking up the pen
work.54 Thus Denis was emboldened to puff himself from ahimself, Gauguin infiltrated some of the ideas he wanted to
purely self-interested point of view, as Signac had done.55 For develop into Albert Aurier's article, 'Le Symbolisme en peinture:
some months he had been trying to find a publisher for the setPaul Gauguin', published in the Mercure de France on 1st March
of pared-down lithographs he had made to accompany, but not 1891. Nevertheless, Gauguin's 'success' at his auction sale on
assuredly to 'illustrate' Verlaine's poems Sagesse (Fig.40). There 23rd February 1891 was central to what Denis felt had been
was considerable enthusiasm for their naif synthetic linearity achieved over the preceding tumultuous year. Writing to
among his friends and certain critics, albeit rather less enthu Lugne-Poe soon after the Gauguin sale, he was keen to convey
siasm from Verlaine himself. In recommending them in histo his actor friend the Nabis' appreciation of the key role he had
own text, Denis swung the attack back once more to the short played: 'Sais-tu que nous disions I'autre jour: en somme c'est Lugne
comings of contemporary naturalist illustration of the kind to be qui est a la clef du succes de Gauguin. Rappelle-toi ce qui s'est passe
found in abundance in illustrated journals or illustrations to thedepuis un an; I'article d'Art et Critique, les relations avec les sym
novels of Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet or Pierre Loti. Felicien bolistes, le nombre de gens que nous avons interesse h la peinture'.60
von Myrbach-Rheinfeld's illustrations to Daudet's Femmes The publication of the Definition, together with a campaign of
d'artistes of 1890 can serve to demonstrate those aspects of making contacts and getting himself and his group into the
modern reproductive illustration that Denis castigates: creating public eye, was beginning to succeed. Denis's assertive 'Notes
photographic black rectangles that jump off the page, natural d'art', by making the most of his limited experience of museums
istic indented bleeding of image into text, arty japoniste devices,and exhibitions, building upon his lycee education, capitalising
cartouches and so on (Fig. 3 9). His own idea of illustrationon the exchanges he had with his older colleague Serusier and —
that would enrich and embellish but not seek to stick rigidly tocrucially - positioning new art in opposition to the varied forms
the text was inspired by ancient missals, illuminated manuscriptsof naturalism so dominant in contemporary French culture,
or wood engravings. Despite the concerted efforts to find a pubgave a coherent and collective dynamic to an emerging gen
lisher in the months following the appearance of the Definition, eration of artists in the intense atmosphere of Paris in 1890.

56 Sagesse by Paul Verlaine with 71 colour images by Maurice Denis, engraved 1890; Lugne-Poe, op. cit. (note 9), p.256.
on wood by Jacques Beltrand, published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris, in 1911 in a 59 This intent is announced by Denis in a letter to Lugne-Poe datable to c.iyth
limited edition of 250. November 1890; ibid., p.261.
" Ranson Bitker and Genty, op. cit. (note 43), p.393 60 Letter from Maurice Denis to Aurelien Lugne-Poe, undated but datable to late
58 Maurice Denis to Aurelien Lugne-Poe, undated but datable to c.7th November February 1891; ibid., p.248.

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