The Talisman
| Support Type: | Wood Panel |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Musée d\'Orsay, Paris |
| Location History: | The painting was first held in Maurice Denis’s own collection, given to him directly by the artist. It then passed to the Boulet-Denis collection in Clermont (Oise), before moving to the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Jean-Francois Denis in Alencon. In 1985, it was acquired by the National Museums with generous support from Philippe Meyer through the Lutèce Foundation, following a formal process (committee approval on 23 May 1985, council approval on 29 May 1985, and a decree on 3 June 1985). That same year, it was assigned to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where it remains today. |
Painted in 1888 at Pont Aven, Paul Sérusier’s The Talisman (above) looks at first glance like a simple landscape, but its strange colours and simplified forms give it an almost dreamlike quality. Sérusier does not try to reproduce nature as it is seen by the eye. Instead he breaks down the landscape into large areas of colour. The trees, river, path, and foliage are still recognisable, but they do not function as a conventional realistic landscape. Bright yellows, blues, reds and greens seem to exist for their own sake and give the painting a sense of energy and freedom. This method grew from Sérusier's meeting with Paul Gauguin, who told him to paint as he felt colour, rather than just to copy what he saw before him. The importance of the painting is that it captures a moment when the landscape begins to become more than a view of nature. It turns into a mixture of colours, shapes and feelings. The painting therefore seems less a window on the real world than Sérusier's own response to it. That is also why the work became so significant for the Nabis, who saw it as a new way of thinking about painting. The title, The Talisman, seems appropriate, for the little picture came to symbolise a turning point, when artists began to believe that colour and form could express emotion without recourse to realism.